The development of methods for the rapid analysis of pathogenic bacteria or viruses is of crucial interest in the clinical diagnosis of infectious diseases. In the last decade, optical resonators integrated with microfluidic layers arose as promising tools for biological analysis, notably thanks to their ability to trap objects with low powers, beneath the damage threshold of biological entities, and with a small footprint. Moreover, the resonant nature of optical cavities allows for the simultaneous acquisition of information on the trapped objects, thanks to the feedback effect induced by the specimen on the trapping field itself.
Here we report on the trapping and on the Gram-type differentiation of seven types of living bacteria in an optofluidic system based on an optical cavity consisting in a large hole in a 2D silicon photonic crystal membrane. The hollow nature of the resonant cavity results in a large overlap between the confined field and the hollow volume, allowing for a maximum interaction between the trapping field and the trapped cell. The optical cavity was excited at the resonance wavelength and the shift induced by the trapped bacteria was analysed. To test the trapping capabilities of our structure, we investigated seven types of bacteria, featuring different morphologies, Gram-types and mobilities (presence or absence of flagella). The analysis of the resonance shift yielded Gram typing in a label-free and not destructive way, due to differences in the refractive index and in the deformability of the cell wall. In particular, Gram negative bacteria showed a larger shift.
Antibiotic resistance kills an estimated 700,000 people each year worldwide and experts predict that this number could hit 10 million by 2050. Rapid diagnostics would play an essential role in the fight against this alarming phenomenon by improving the way in which antibiotherapy is used, notably by stopping the unnecessary use of antibiotics. Clinical microbiology has relied on culture as the standard method for characterizing pathogens over the past century. This process is time-consuming and requires large biomasses. In this context, single-cell monitoring would be a significant breakthrough compared to Petri dishes culture. A first step was achieved by the demonstration of single bacterium trapping by optical tweezers and integrated photonics. Here, the nondestructive real-time state monitoring of a single alive trapped bacterium is demonstrated. In order to achieve this, a two-laser setup was developed to simultaneously trap and monitor a single bacterium in the near-field of a nanobeam microcavity. While the first laser is used to excite the optical field tweezing the bacterium, the second laser probes the cavity resonance spectrum. The bacterium optical interaction with the resonant cavity mode allows to assess the bacterium state in real time when subjected to an antibacterial agent (antibiotics, alcohol, temperature). Confronted to standards culture-based methods, this optical label-free approach yields relevant information about bacterial viability, without time-consuming culture or staining.
Those results evidence that on-chip devices operating at telecom wavelength may greatly enhance the monitoring of bacteria in the near future leading to major improvements in health care diagnosis and patient treatments.
Near-field optical forces arise from evanescent electromagnetic fields and can be advantageously used for on-chip
optical trapping. In this work, we investigate how evanescent fields at the surface of photonic cavities can efficiently trap
micro-objects such as polystyrene particles and bacteria. We study first the influence of trapped particle’s size on the
trapping potential and introduce an original optofluidic near-field optical microscopy technique. Then we analyze the
rotational motion of trapped clusters of microparticles and investigate their possible use as microfluidic micro-tools such
as integrated micro-flow vane. Eventually, we demonstrate efficient on-chip optical trapping of various kinds of bacteria.
KEYWORDS: Near field, Near field optics, Photonic crystals, Near field scanning optical microscopy, Microscopy, Optical microcavities, Resonators, Signal detection, Geometrical optics, Photonic nanostructures
The fundamentals of the near-field interaction between a subwavelength tip and a photonic-crystal
nanocavity are investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is shown experimentally that the cavity
resonance is tuned without any degradation by the presence of the tip and that the reported near-field
interaction is strongly related to the field distribution within the nanostructure. From the interaction between
the probe and the cavity, we will show a new kind of microscopy.
Ultrahigh Q/V lineic silicon Fabry Perot (FP) microcavities relying on silica substrate have been fabricated. Two cavities
designs are studied based respectively on cavity mode losses recycling and on mirrors with tapered sections. The
experimental evolution of cavities characteristics are studied as a function of sample temperature. The authors achieve a
quality factor of 58000 for a modal volume of 0.6 (λ/n)3.
Short microcavities consisting of two identical tapered hole mirrors etched into silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguides are investigated. They are designed for operating at telecom wavelength. We describe theoretically and experimentally two different ways to boost quality factors to some thousands. In one hand, we investigate the adaptation of mode profile to suppress mismatch losses. In an other hand, we explore the recycling of the losses. We obtained quality factor up to 3000, which opens the route to WDM applications.
We report on third-harmonic (TH) generation emitted from 1D photonic slabs etched into Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) planar waveguides, as compared to the bare waveguide and (100) Silicon bulk responses. 130-fs laser pulses at ~ 810 nm and ~1550 nm have been chosen as a pump to excite TH signals in reflection and diffraction directions. The measured angles of in-plane diffracted third-harmonic beams agree with those predicted by nonlinear diffraction equations. The nonlinear reflectance as a function of the angle of incidence and azimuthal orientation of the structure has been measured. The near-infrared measurements have revealed that, whenever the pump frequency is resonant with a photonic mode, a substantial enhancement of the harmonic signal occurs. This nonlinear mechanism is in principle a very sensitive spectroscopic tool in determining and mapping the photonic band diagram of the system above the light line. The agreement between experimental data and ad hoc simulations of the nonlinear behavior of the system sheds new light on the nonlinear optical response of these nanostructured materials.
Investigations of polarizations effects in second-harmonic generation of a one-dimensional photonic crystal based on gallium nitride were performed for the fundamental beam incident on the surface of the photonic crystal. The angle of incidence, the azimuthal rotation angle of the photonic crystal, the frequency, and the polarization behaviour for strongly enhanced second-harmonic generation agree well with the identified position and polarization of the resonant Bloch modes. Along the direction, giant enhancements of 7500 times in the second-harmonic conversion have been obtained in the one-dimensional photonic crystal by comparison with the unpatterned GaN layer. The combined role of the resonant coupling of the fundamental field and of the second-harmonic field has been observed as the polarization of the fundamental beam is rotated.
The second-harmonic field generated has been measured in reflection from the surface of one-dimensional and two-dimensional photonic crystals etched into a GaN layer. A very large second-harmonic enhancement is observed when simultaneously the incident beam at the fundamental frequency w excites a resonant Bloch mode and the second-harmonic field generated is coupled into a resonant Bloch mode at 2w. A smaller, but still substantially enhanced, second-harmonic generation level was also observed when the fundamental field was coupled into a resonant mode, while the second-harmonic field was not. By using calculated and experimental equifrequency surfaces, it is possible to identify the geometrical configurations that will allow quasi-phase matching to be satisfied - and observed experimentally in the available wavelength tuning range of the laser. The extended transparency window of III-nitride wide-bandgap semiconductors, coupled with large non linearities, is an appealing feature pointing towards the control and manipulation of light in photonic structures.
We study adiabatic mode transformations in waveguides that rely on subwavelength holes with progressively-varying dimensions. The variation synthesizes an artificial material with a gradient effective index. Two devices are presented, a microcavity with short tapers incorporated at the four reflector extremities, and a taper between a conventional waveguide and a photonic crystal waveguide.
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