Selectively buried waveguide sensors for monolayer and sub-monolayer detection of biological and chemical analytes

This paper describes a new form of optical waveguide structure that is suitable for detecting low concentrations of chemical and biological analytes and can be efficiently integrated into fiber networks. The waveguide is formed in glass and inherently provides a good interface to recognition layers that can be tailored to interact with specific chemical or biological analytes at monolayer and potentially sub-monolayer concentration levels. The glass platform is also compatible with other optical materials such as sol-gels and polymers allowing the formation of composite waveguide/microresonator or waveguide/PBG devices.