Label-free Single Molecule Detection Using Microtoroid Optical Resonators

Detecting small concentrations of molecules down to the single molecule limit has impact on areas such as early detection of disease, and fundamental studies on the behavior of molecules. Single molecule detection techniques commonly utilize labels such as fluorescent tags or quantum dots, however, labels are not always available, increase cost and complexity, and can perturb the events being studied. Optical resonators have emerged as a promising means to detect single molecules without the use of labels. Currently the smallest particle detected by a non-plasmonically-enhanced bare optical resonator system in solution is a 25 nm polystyrene sphere(1). We have developed a technique known as Frequency Locking Optical Whispering Evanescent Resonator (FLOWER) that can surpass this limit and achieve label-free single molecule detection in aqueous solution(2). As signal strength scales with particle volume, our work represents a > 100x improvement in the signal to noise ratio (SNR) over the current state of the art. Here the procedures behind FLOWER are presented in an effort to increase its usage in the field.