Giant enhancement of two-photon fluorescence induced by resonant double grating waveguide structures

Abstract

We report a 350-fold enhancement of ultra-short-pulse-excited two-photon fluorescence (TPF) using a resonant double grating waveguide structure (DGWS). These structures show vanishing transmission and maximum reflection under resonance conditions, i.e. specific wavelength, polarisation and angular orientation of the incident light. This guided mode phenomenon is characterised by a large field enhancement inducing an enormous TPF signal of fluorescent molecules at the waveguide surface, as compared to direct non-resonant excitation. We demonstrate that high spectral acceptance for ultra-short pulses with broad spectral bandwidths can be achieved by a specifically designed DGWS, and that neither beam focussing nor high laser power is necessary for TPF excitation. Due to the high enhancement of more than two orders of magnitude, DGWS can be considered as a powerful platform for TPF applications such as biosensing and microarray technology.