Sensitivity and scattering in a monolithic heterodyned laser biochemical sensor

Author

Cohen, Daniel A. ; Nolde, Jill A. ; Pedretti, Anna Tauke ; Wang, Chad S. ; Skogen, Erik J. ; Coldren, Larry A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

9

Issue

5

fYear

2003

Firstpage

1124

Lastpage

1131

Abstract

We discuss the sensitivity of a novel biochemical sensor based on the heterodyne detection of the optical frequency shift between two monolithically integrated frequency-tunable lasers. A hundred-fold improvement may be obtained by replacing the traditional ridge waveguide structure with a quasisymmetrically clad channel waveguide, which we demonstrate in a simple coupled-cavity sensor. In most cases, the optical scattering from biomolecules bound to such a waveguide will be negligible.

Keywords

biomedical measurement; biosensors; chemical sensors; claddings; heterodyne detection; integrated optoelectronics; laser cavity resonators; laser tuning; light scattering; optical design techniques; optical frequency conversion; optical sensors; optical waveguide theory; reviews; ridge waveguides; semiconductor lasers; sensitivity; biochemical sensor; biomedical measurements; biomolecules; coupled-cavity sensor; heterodyne detection; integrated optoelectronics; monolithic heterodyned laser; monolithically integrated frequency-tunable laser; optical frequency shift; optical scattering; quasisymmetrically clad channel waveguide; ridge waveguide structure; semiconductor lasers; sensitivity; Biomedical optical imaging; Biosensors; Frequency; Integrated optics; Optical detectors; Optical mixing; Optical scattering; Optical sensors; Optical waveguides; Waveguide lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1077-260X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSTQE.2003.819481

Filename

1263941