Sensor Schematic (IMAGE)
Caption
Pump light coupled to the device produced lasing in a microring resonator. The surface of the resonator holds probes (red anchor molecules on the ring) that capture the analytes of interest. The laser light in the ring extends into the fluid. When analytes of interest (blue triangles) attach to the capture probes, this is sensed by the field outside the microring laser, shifting the frequency of the laser emission. This shift can be very precisely measured permitting the detection of minute amounts of analytes flowing over the sensor in a "specific" manner (i.e., the pink particles do not bind to the capture layer and are therefore not detected). In the figure, the waveguide are green (real color produced by upconversion of the dopants that induce the laser emission) and a microfluidic channel can be seen in which different particles flow from left to right.
Credit
Rick Seubers, Optical Sciences group, University of Twente
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