Integrated Nanophotonic Silicon Platform for On-Chip Ultra Sensitive Bio-Detection

我们提出了一种新的芯片上CMOS兼容的硅光子结构平台，用于检测少量的金纳米粒子，这些金纳米粒子可以选择性地与生物识别元件结合，并可以使用标准的生物化学技术作为生物标记。检测单个金纳米颗粒的能力将使生物分子的超灵敏生物检测成为可能。由于生物标记的横截面小，单粒子检测从根本上具有挑战性。用作标签的金属纳米颗粒的消光截面可以使用强光限制芯片上结构（例如谐振微腔）增强几个数量级。尺寸小至5nm的金属纳米颗粒的存在可以通过测量通过光子结构的透射率的降低来检测。将使用具有亚微米尺寸的高折射率对比度波导来实现光源、检测器和传感器在单个芯片上的高度集成。在这个项目中，我们将开发拟议的生物传感平台所需的组件：（i）在芯片上路由光信号和（ii）使用微米级芯片上硅微腔检测金属纳米颗粒。我们将展示在单个芯片上形成平台的不同组件的集成。更广泛的影响拟议的研究，除了其在生物传感领域的强大影响，将形成研究新的集成结构的基础，以增强集成系统中光和物质的相互作用。应用包括放大器、传感器、激光器等，这些应用将在电信、化学和医学等领域产生重大影响。作为该计划的一部分，我们将整合两名将积极参与研究的REU学生。该项目位于物理，化学，应用物理，光学，光子学和材料科学的接口。我们的建议将使本科生有机会参与一个跨学科的项目，这应该为他们提供一个非常丰富的夏季研究经验。我们还将整合生物传感光子学的主题，目前在康奈尔大学为本科生和研究生教授的两门课程。这个主题将在课堂和实验室实验中介绍。

Intellectual meritWe propose to investigate a novel on-chip CMOS-compatible platform of Silicon photonic structures for the detection small numbers of gold nanoparticles that are used as biological labels.Gold nanoparticles can selectively bind to bio-recognition elements and can be used as biological labels using standard biochemistry techniques. The ability to detect single gold nanoparticles will enable ultra sensitive bio-detection of biological molecules. Single particle detection is fundamentally challenging due to the small cross section of the biological labels. The extinction cross-section of the metal nanoparticles used as labels can be enhanced by orders of magnitude using strong light confining on-chip structures, such as resonant microcavities. The presence of a metal nanoparticle with size as small as 5nm can be detected by measuring the decrease in transmission through the photonic structure. The high degree of integration of the light source, detectors and sensors on a single chip will be achieved using high index contrast waveguides with sub-micron size dimensions. In this project we will develop the components for the proposed biosensing platform required for: (i) Routing optical signals on-chip and (ii) Detecting metal nanoparticles using micron-size on-chip Silicon microcavities. We will demonstrate the integration of the different components forming the platform on a single chip.Broader ImpactThe proposed research, in addition to its strong impact in the field of biosensing, will form the basis for investigating novel integrated structures for enhancing the interaction of light and matter in integrated systems. Applications include amplifiers, sensors, lasers, etc. These applications will have strong impact in areas such as telecommunications, chemistry, and medicine. As part of this program we will integrate two REU students that will be actively involved in the research. This project lies at the interface of physics, chemistry, applied physics, optics, photonics, and materials science. Our proposal will give undergraduate students an opportunity to be involved in an interdisciplinary project, which should provide them with a very enriching summer research experience. We will also integrate the topic of photonics for biosensing, in two courses currently taught in Cornell for undergraduate and graduate students. The topic will be introduced both in lectures and in lab experiments.