Chemical and Biological Sensors based on Porous Silicon Photonic Micro-Systems

用于环境、医疗和安全应用的化学和生物传感器的小型化需求日益增长。对这类应用非常感兴趣的是低功耗、紧凑和成本效益高的微系统，它结合了非电子传感能力和电子处理。这项拟议工作的目标是进行基础研究，以开发集成在单片硅衬底上的高灵敏度化学和/或生物传感器。这项多学科的研究将集中于对纳米级化学、生物和近场光学相互作用的基本了解，从而开发基于多孔硅(Psi)的传感器微系统的设计和实现方法。拟议的微型系统将使用基于微型制造光源的光学换能器，结合优化的纳米结构共振光学过滤装置和光电探测器，实现对分析物的无标记检测，其灵敏度比现有技术(如表面等离子体共振或光学干涉法)高得多。这项技术将适用于环境监测、医疗诊断、高通量筛选和药物基因组学应用中的各种传感问题。PIS建议研究这项新兴技术的两个互补方面：(A)研究PSI光学性质的改变与孔中引入的不同物种浓度之间的相关性，包括神经毒剂、溶剂或生物分子；以及(B)使用微和纳米制造技术建立的单片集成近场介观光学结构的设计、建模、制造和测试。该研究不仅将对片上单片集成微传感器系统的发展产生重大影响，而且将促进纳米尺度和介观结构中近场线性和非线性光学现象的基础科学和技术的发展。这些研究还将促进近场非线性介电纳米结构中的矢量场光波相互作用，纳米结构复合材料中的量子和非线性光学过程，以及利用沉积、光化学和离子注入技术制造此类器件等多学科领域的基础科学和工程。拟议的项目还将在研究生和本科生科学和工程人力资源的教育和开发方面发挥独特的作用。

0088060FainmanThere is a growing demand for the miniaturization of chemical and biological sensors for environmental, medical and security applications. Of great interest for such applications are low-power, compact, and cost effective micro-systems that combine non-electrical sensing capabilities and electronic processing. The goal of the proposed work is to conduct basic research towards the development of high sensitivity chemical and/or biological sensors integrated on a monolithic Si substrate. This multi-disciplinary study will focus on fundamental understanding of nano-scale chemical, biological and near-field optical interactions, leading to the development of design and implementation methodologies for porous silicon (Psi)-based sensor micro-systems. The proposed micro-systems will use optical transducers based on microfabricated optical sources combined with optimized nanostructured resonant optical filtering devices and photodetectors, allowing label-free detection of analytes with significantly higher sensitivity than existing techniques (e.g. surface plasmon resonance or optical interferometry). This technique will be applicable to a variety of sensing problems in environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, high-throughput screening, and pharmacogenomics applications. The PIs propose to study two complementary aspects of this emerging technology: (a) investigation of the correlation between the modification of the optical properties of PSi and the concentration of different species introduced in the pores, including nerve agents, solvents, or biological molecules; and (b) design, modeling, fabrication and testing of monolithically integrated near-field meso-optic structures built using micro- and nano-fabrication techniques. The proposed research will not only have a significant impact on the development of on-chip monolitically integrated micro-sensor systems, but also result in the development of basic science and technology of near-field linear and nonlinear optical phenomena in nano-scale and meso-scale structures. The proposed studies will also advance basic science and engineering in such multidisciplinary areas as vector field optical wave interactions in near-field nonlinear dielectric nanostructures, quantum and nonlinear optical processes in nanostructured composite materials, and fabrication of such devices using deposition, photochemistry, and ion implantation techniques. The proposed project will also play a unique role in the education and development of human resources in science and engineering at the graduate and undergraduate levels.