ABSTRACT
The miniaturization of gas chromatography (GC) systems has made it possible to utilize the analytical technique in various on-site applications to rapidly analyze complex gas samples. Various types of miniaturized sensors have been developed for micro-gas chromatography (µGC). However, the integration of an appropriate detector in µGC systems still faces a significant challenge. We present a solution to the problem through integration of µGC with photonic crystal slab (PCS) sensors using transfer printing technology. This integration offers an opportunity to utilize the advantages of optical sensors, such as high sensitivity and rapid response time, and at the same time, compensate for the lack of detection specificity from which label-free optical sensors suffer. We transfer printed a 2D defect free PCS on a borofloat glass, bonded it to a silicon microfluidic gas cell or directly to a microfabricated GC column, and then coated it with a gas responsive polymer. Realtime spectral shift in Fano resonance of the PCS sensor was used to quantitatively detect analytes over a mass range of three orders. The integrated µGC-PCS system was used to demonstrate separation and detection of a complex mixture of 10 chemicals. Fast separation and detection (4 min) and a low detection limit (ng) was demonstrated.
Subject(s)
Chromatography, Gas , Lab-On-A-Chip Devices , Equipment Design , Microtechnology , Photons , Polymers , SiliconABSTRACT
In this paper, we present the design and operation of a solid-core/liquid-cladding (SL) waveguide excited by an evanescent wave. To do this, an optical fiber is integrated into a microfluidic channel and pumped along the fiber axis, ensuring the cladding solution is excited by the evanescent field of the guided mode at the core/cladding interface. The pump beam is guided by the total internal reflection in the fiber, providing a uniform excitation along the microfluidic channel. The evanescent wave provides precise excitation to the dye molecules in close proximity to the core/cladding interface, which significantly reduces the background fluorescence and increases the signal-to-noise ratio. Fluorescence intensity measurements of different dye concentrations and refractive indices of the cladding solution are conducted to evaluate their influences on the propagation loss, which shows that the peak intensity propagation loss can be as low as about 0.1 dB/cm. We further exemplify that the intensity of the fluorescence emission and the dye concentration show good linearity when the dye is in the low concentration region (<250 µM). A broad-band and simultaneous light source with a single pump light is also demonstrated by employing cascade SL waveguide segments through fluorescence resonance energy transfer. The proposed SL waveguide demonstrates excellent robustness and is easy to fabricate and use, providing a versatile platform for a variety of applications, such as high-sensitivity detection of low-concentration samples, multiband on-chip light sources, and simultaneous measurement of multiplexed parameters.
ABSTRACT
Optofluidic lasers are an emerging technology for the development of miniaturized light sources and biological and chemical sensors. However, most optofluidic lasers demonstrated to date are operated at the single optical cavity level, which limits their applications in high-throughput biochemical sensing, high-speed wavelength switching, and on-chip spectroscopic analysis. Here, we demonstrated an optofluidic droplet laser array on a silicon chip with integrated microfluidics, in which four individual droplet optical cavities are generated and controlled by a 2 × 2 nozzle array. Arrays of droplets with a diameter ranging from 115 to 475 µm can be generated, removed, and regenerated on demand. The lasing threshold of the droplet laser array is in the range of 0.63-2.02 µJ/mm2. An image-based lasing threshold analysis method is developed, which enables simultaneous lasing threshold measurement for all laser units within the laser array using a low-cost camera. Compared to the conventional spectrum-based threshold analysis method, the lasing threshold obtained from the image-based method showed consistent results. Our droplet laser array is a promising technology in the development of cost-effective and integrated coherent light source on a chip for point-of-care applications.
