All-in-one integrated polymer waveguide with phase-shifted Bragg grating for enhanced fluorescence detection

Area of Science:

• Integrated photonics
• Optofluidics
• Biosensing

Background:

• Polymer waveguides offer low loss and microfluidic integration for biosensing.
• Existing fluorescence detection methods can be limited by excitation and collection efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an all-in-one polymer waveguide optofluidic chip for enhanced fluorescence detection.
• To improve fluorescence excitation and collection efficiency using integrated photonic components.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a polymer waveguide chip with a phase-shifted Bragg grating (PS-BG) as an excitation filter.
• Utilized a slot waveguide with field enhancement as the sensing region.
• Incorporated Bragg gratings for fluorescence redirection and excitation light reflection.

Main Results:

• Achieved a 1.7-fold enhancement in fluorescence excitation efficiency.
• Reached a total fluorescence collection efficiency of up to 49.67%.
• Demonstrated effective filtering of excitation and fluorescence wavelengths.

Conclusions:

• The proposed optofluidic chip significantly enhances fluorescence detection performance.
• This technology has potential for miniaturized, portable biomedical fluorescence detection devices.