Miniaturized Si-based plasmonics platform for gas detection

与有毒气体污染、京都议定书下的国际义务以及化学（或生物）恐怖主义袭击的可能性相关的对我们社会的新威胁，将开发用于有效评估大气中有害或潜在危险气体和蒸气的浓度的低成本、可靠和灵敏的方法置于最前沿。目前可用的气体检测技术包括红外吸收和化学反应传感器。然而，由于技术上的困难，到目前为止，这些方法还不能提供结合了高灵敏度、良好可靠性和成本效率的传感器装置。这项战略拨款提案旨在开发新的光子学方法，这可以提供这样的组合。该提案的方法基于项目参与者最近与表面等离子体共振（SPR）转导相关的发现。特别是，我们证明了SPR效应的硅平台上，它使用硅作为耦合材料，而不是在传统的SPR传感器的玻璃。这种传感器提供了高灵敏度和更好的机会，传感器的小型化和集成，利用更好的发展硅基方法的微制造相比，玻璃。此外，Si平台提供了优势，例如使用波长接近不同气体吸收峰的泵浦光以及不同的聚合物和薄固体基气敏膜进行SPR生产的可能性。该项目将考虑用于气体检测的不同Si基SPR传感器配置。这项研究的成功将是一项突破性的气体传感器技术，可以廉价地在现场部署。该项目将由理工学院和女王大学的一组研究人员执行。潜在的应用将是环境安全，反生物恐怖主义和军事，这对国家安全和加拿大消费者至关重要

New threats to our society related to the pollution of toxic gases, international obligations under the Kyoto protocol, as well as the possibility of chemical (or bio-) terrorism attack, put to the forefront the development of low-cost, reliable, and sensitive methods for effective assessment of the concentration of hazardous or potentially dangerous gases and vapors in the atmosphere. Currently available technologies for gas detection include IR absorption and chemical reaction sensors. However, due to technological difficulties, up to now these approaches have not been able to provide a sensor device combining high sensitivity, good reliability and cost-efficiency. This Strategic Grant proposal is aimed at the development of novel photonics methodologies, which could provide such a combination. The approach of this proposal is based on recent findings of project participants related to Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) transduction. In particular, we demonstrated SPR effect on a silicon platform, which uses Si as a coupling material instead of glass in conventional SPR sensors. Such sensors offer high sensitivity and better opportunities for sensor miniaturization and integration, taking advantage of much better development of Si-based methods for microfabrication compared to glass. In addition, the Si platform offers advantages such as a possibility of SPR production using pumping light with wavelengths close to absorption peaks of different gases, as well as different polymer- and thin solid-based gas-sensitive films. The project will consider different Si-based SPR sensors configurations for gas detection. Success in the proposed research will be a breakthrough gas sensor technology that can be field-deployed cheaply. This project will be performed by a team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique and Queen's University. Potential applications will be environmental safety, counter-bioterrorism and military, which are vital for national security and Canadian consumers