Fabrication and testing of planar chalcogenide waveguide integrated microfluidic sensor

Opt Express. 2007 Mar 5;15(5):2307-14. doi: 10.1364/oe.15.002307.

Abstract

We have fabricated and tested, to the best of our knowledge, the first microfluidic device monolithically integrated with planar chalcogenide glass waveguides on a silicon substrate. High-quality Ge(23)Sb(7)S(70) glass films have been deposited onto oxide coated silicon wafers using thermal evaporation, and high-index-contrast channel waveguides have been defined using SF(6) plasma etching. Microfluidic channel patterning in photocurable resin (SU8) and channel sealing by a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cover completed the device fabrication. The chalcogenide waveguides yield a transmission loss of 2.3 dB/cm at 1550 nm. We show in this letter that using this device, N-methylaniline can be detected using its well-defined absorption fingerprint of the N-H bond near 1496 nm. Our measurements indicate linear response of the sensor to varying N-methylaniline concentrations. From our experiments, a sensitivity of this sensor down to a N-methylaniline concentration 0.7 vol. % is expected. Given the low-cost fabrication process used, and robust device configuration, our integration scheme provides a promising device platform for chemical sensing applications.