Novel Sensors for Detecting Single Nanoparticles/Molecules

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Abstract Title: Novel Sensors for Detecting Single Nanoparticles/MoleculesNon-Technical Description: Sensitive detection of a single nanoparticle/molecule is essential for many important applications ranging from medical diagnostics, drug discovery, security screening, to environmental science. The objective of this project is to explore and develop a novel approach for particle and molecule sensing that potentially offers unprecedented sensing resolution significantly beyond current state of the art. By engineering micro/nano-photonic structures to produce intriguing mechanisms to amplify and transduce the sensing signal, and to suppress the noises impacting optical sensing, the PI's group aim to open up a transformative research avenue towards ultra-sensitive, high-speed, label-free detection of single nanoparticles and biomolecules that is of immense importance for broad biomedical, environmental, and security applications. The proposed research, if successful, is expected to have profound impact on broad sensing areas beyond the molecule sensing itself, significantly advancing optical frequency metrology and precision measurement that are impacted by fundamental thermal noises in photonic devices. Fundamental research findings and device innovations will be disseminated to the broader research communities through published papers; the research outcomes will be also incorporated into the courses offered by the PI at the University of Rochester. The proposed research would result in training graduate students and undergraduate students in the diverse interdisciplinary areas of nanophotonics, nonlinear optics, optomechanics, and optical sensing. Through the outreach programs, this project will also help promote the interests and participations of K-12 students, and broaden the participations from underrepresented groups. Technical Description: The proposed research aims to explore nanoparticle and biomolecule sensing based upon novel intriguing light-matter interaction mechanisms inside micro/nano-photonic devices that are able to significantly amplify and transduce the sensing signal and that are able to suppress dramatically the fundamental noises limiting conventional optical sensing. The combined effect leads to a novel sensing methodology with potentially unprecedented sensing resolution. With strong expertise in both the physics and engineering of nanophotonic devices, the PI's group plan to carry out explorative research within the three-year effort, to study the fundamental physics regarding the detection limit of this novel sensing approach, to explore the ultimate sensing resolution offered by the proposed approach for detecting single nanoparticles and single biomolecules, to find the operation conditions that can achieve such resolution, to develop novel nanophotonic device structures on fully integrated platform that are able to provide optimal sensing performance, and to apply them for diverse sensing applications. The preliminary results have shown great promise to achieve these goals.