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Design of a highly sensitive photonic crystal waveguide platform for refractive index based biosensing

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Abstract

In this paper, a photonic crystal waveguide platform on silicon-on-insulator substrate is proposed in order to realize a highly sensitive refractive index based biosensor. Following the design, the analysis of the sensor structure are made by using the three dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain method. The principle of sensing is based on the change in refractive index, which in turn changes the output spectrum of the waveguide. Results show that the sensitivity of the sensor depends mainly on the geometrical properties of the defect region of the photonic crystal structure. The phenomenon is verified for various samples having refractive index ranging from 1 (air) to 1.57 (Bovine serum albumin). Further, the structure is compared with few other conventional photonic crystal waveguide designs to analyze the sensing performance. The estimated value of sensitivity of the sensor is found to be 260 nm/RIU with a detection limit of 0.001 RIU. This high sensitivity can enhance the performance of low-concentration analytes detection.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to the director, CSIR-CEERI, Pilani for his encouragement in this work. Authors thank to all members of Optoelectronic Devices Group for their help and cooperation. Authors would like to acknowledge CSIR for sponsoring the PSC-0102 network project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Opto-Electronic Devices Group, CSIR–Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CSIR–CEERI), Pilani, 333 031, Rajasthan, India

    Hemant Sankar Dutta & Suchandan Pal

  2. Electronics and Communication Engineering Department, Tezpur University, Napaam, Tezpur, 784028, Assam, India

    Hemant Sankar Dutta

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  1. Hemant Sankar Dutta
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  2. Suchandan Pal
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Correspondence to Hemant Sankar Dutta.

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Dutta, H.S., Pal, S. Design of a highly sensitive photonic crystal waveguide platform for refractive index based biosensing. Opt Quant Electron 45, 907–917 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-013-9697-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-013-9697-x

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