Nanoporous polymer ring resonators for biosensing

Optically resonant devices are promising as label-free biomolecular sensors due to their ability to concentrate electromagnetic energy into small mode volumes and their capacity for multiplexed detection. A fundamental limitation of current optical biosensor technology is that the biomolecular interactions are limited to the surface of the resonant device, while the highest intensity of electromagnetic energy is trapped within the core. In this paper, we present nanoporous polymer optofluidic devices consisting of ring resonators coupled to bus waveguides. We report a 40% increase in polymer device sensitivity attributed to the addition of core energy- bioanalyte interactions.