RESUMEN
The dual polarization microring technique enables the simultaneous and accurate detection of thickness and refractive index of a bound molecular layer. By using three microring resonators in a double Vernier cascade configuration, the dual polarization technique is improved on three distinct levels: an increase of the sensitivity, a suppression of common noise due to self-referencing and the ability to migrate from a standard tunable laser to a cheap broadband LED and an on-chip arrayed waveguide grating as read-out system, allowing for a system which is orders of magnitude faster and cheaper. A dual polarization Vernier cascade proof-of-concept is fabricated and characterized, a read-out computational framework is constructed and it is shown on a theoretical basis that the limit of detection is improved.
RESUMEN
Optical microresonator biosensors have proven to be a valid tool to perform affinity analysis of a biological binding event. However, when these microresonators are excited with a single optical mode they can not distinguish between a thin dense layer of biomolecules or a thick sparse layer. This means the sensor is "blind" to changes in shape of bound biomolecules. We succeeded in exciting a Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) microring with TE and TM polarisations simultaneously by using an asymmetrical directional coupler and as such were able to separately determine the thickness and the density (or refractive index) of a bound biolayer. A proof-of-concept is given by determining both parameters of deposited dielectric layers and by analysing the conformational changes of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) proteins due to a change in pH of the buffer.