MRI: Development of dip sensor heads and sensor arrays for whispering gallery mode biosensor

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

1040015 Teraoka The present proposal aims to develop a compact photonic sensor head and an array of multiple sensors for whispering gallery mode (WGM) biosensor that can be dipped into a solution in a cell of a well plate. The proposal also includes development of an artificial olfactory system as an application and a dip-pen refractive index detector that will help the analysis of the WGM sensor signal. The proposal intends to eliminate a need for the positioner and the fluid delivery system by developing an interchangeable sensor head consisting of a microsphere and tapered fibers preassembled to optimize the coupling. A crown of six tapered fibers in an hexagonal arrangement will support the microsphere covalently bonded to the tapers. One of the fibers will feed light into the sphere, and the opposite fiber will pick up the WGM resonance. The sensor surface will be available for immobilization of receptors. The array sensor will allow simultaneous detection of different ligands, but its capability to spatially resolve the analyte concentration will pave the way for other sensing schemes that include recognizing the pattern of spreading of the analyte in one and two dimensions. The artificial olfactory system will employ an array of sensor heads, each coated with a different liquid layer to preferentially partition odorant molecules.