Review of design principles of 2D photonic crystal microcavity biosensors in silicon and their applications

• Published in: Frontiers of Optoelectronics (Online) Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 206 - 224
• Main Authors: CHAKRAVARTY, Swapnajit, CHEN, Xiangning, TANG, Naimei, LAI, Wei-Cheng, ZOU, Yi, YAN, Hai, CHEN, Ray T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Higher Education Press 01.06.2016
• Subjects: Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; biosensor; Electrical Engineering; Engineering; high sensitivity; high specificity; nanophotonics; photonic crystal (PC) sensor; photonic crystal microcavity (PCM); photonic crystal waveguide (PCW); photonic integrated circuits (PICs); Physics; Review Article; slow light; 二维光子晶体; 光子晶体波导; 应用; 微腔; 生物传感器; 生物标志物; 综述; 设计; photonic crystal waveguide (PCW); nanophotonics; high sensitivity; photonic crystal microcavity (PCM); biosensor; slow light; photonic integrated circuits (PICs); photonic crystal (PC) sensor; high specificity
• ISSN: 2095-2759; 2095-2767
• DOI: 10.1007/s12200-016-0631-2

In this paper, we reviewed the design principles of two-dimensional (2D) silicon photonic crystal microcavity (PCM) biosensors coupled to photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs). Microcavity radiation loss is controlled by engineered the cavity mode volume. Coupling loss into the waveguide is controlled by adjusting the position of the microcavity from the waveguide. We also investigated the dependence of analyte overlap integral (also called fill fraction) of the resonant mode as well as the effect of group index of the coupling waveguide at the resonant wavelength of the microcavity. In addition to the cavity properties, absorbance of the sensing medium or analyte together with the affinity constant of the probe and target biomarkers involved in the biochemical reaction also limits the minimum detection limits. We summarized our results in applications in cancer biomarker detection, heavy metal sensing and therapeutic drug monitoring.