Abstract

There is an increasing interest in systems based on micro/nanotecnologies for the development of ultrasensitive and miniaturised biosensors. For example, genomics and proteomics sensing are fields where new laboratory analysis (faster, direct, more accurate, smaller and cheaper than conventional methods) are demanded. Integrated optical (IO) devices are increasingly been used as transducers for optochemical sensing applications and can fulfill the above specifications¹. The integrated optical sensors are based on optical waveguides and make use of the evanescent field detection principle. These evanescent wave sensors show a great potential for sensing biomolecular interactions in real-time without labeling requirements, which have made them quite useful for applications ranging from biomedical, environmental, industrial to genomic and proteomics. This technology can be an alternative to conventional analytical techniques because they can avoid expensive, complex and time-consuming procedures.

© 2005 Optical Society of America