Nanophotonic Devices

Nanophotonics is a promising candidate for meeting the above requirements for two reasons (1) a signal can be transferred by the dressed photon exchange between nanometric particles without using any wires and (2) a non-invasive attack is impossible because the signal intensity is fixed by the energy dissipation inside the nanometric particles [30]. This section reviews the principles, operations, and applications of these nanophotonic devices. 

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Optically Resonant Nanophotonic Devices for Label-Free Biomolecular Detection... 

The goal of this chapter will be to provide an overview of the use of planar, optically resonant nanophotonic devices for biomolecular detection. Nanophotonics23 24 represents the fusion of nanotechnology with optics and thus it is proposed that sensors based on this technology can combine the advantages of each as discussed above. Although many of the issues are the same, we focus here on optical resonance rather than plasmonic resonance (such as is used in emerging local SPR and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy-based biosensors). 

In this chapter, we have attempted to describe broadly the advantages available from the use of planar nanophotonic devices as biomolecular detectors. We have reviewed the state of the art in these devices and described a few technical challenges involved in improving these devices. In the context of these challenges, we have introduced our Nanoscale Optofluidic Sensor Arrays which represents our attempt to address them. 

Rajan, M., Global Market for Nanophotonic Devices to Reach 9.33 Billion by 2009, Business Communications Company, Inc., Norwalk, CT, Report RGB-314, http //www.bccresearch.com/ editors/RGB-3l4.html. 

Up to now, a large part of the international scientific attention was devoted to the study of metallic nanoparticles (either single particles or in a colloid ensemble) (3, 14). Milling nanometric apertures in a metallic film is an intuitive way to manufacture new nanophotonics devices that are robust and highly reproducible. Although this concept appears very simple, such apertures exhibit attractive physical properties, such as localization of excitation light, strong isolation fi om emission produced by unbound species, and an increase in apparent absorption and emission yield. The simplicity of the structures and their ease of use should further expand their application towards the real-time detection and identification of a small number of molecules. 

Sankar, Milana Vasudev, Dimitri Alexson, Peng Shi, Mitra Dutta, and Michael A. Stroscio, Tijana Rajh, Zoran Saponjic, Nicholas Kotov, Zhiyong Tang, and Song Xu, Colloidal Quantum Dots as Optoelectronic Elements, in Quantum Sensing and Nanophotonic Devices III, edited by M. Proceedings SPIE, 6127, 61270-131-143 (2006). 

In the context of optical trapping nanophotonic devices have two important advantages over the state of the art. 

The main properties that are used in our holographic and nanophotonic device developments are birefringence, dielectric anisotropy and fluid viscosity. 

Because the extent of localization of the dressed photon is equivalent to the nanometric particle size, the long-wavelength approximation, which has always been employed for conventional light-matter interaction theory, is not valid. This means that an electric dipole-forbidden state in the nanometric particle can be excited as a result of the dressed photon exchange between closely placed nanometric particles, which enables the operation of novel nanophotonic devices. Details of such devices will be reviewed in Sect. 1.4. 

Input and output terminals are used to connect the nanophotonic device in the integrated circuit with external macroscopic photonic devices. The input terminal is used to convert the incident propagating light (free photons) to the optical near-held... 

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