Photonic crystal nanolasers with nanoslot structure for sensing applications

Abstract

High-performance and low-cost sensors are critical devices for high-throughput analyses of bio-samples in medical diagnoses and life sciences. In this paper, we demonstrate photonic crystal nanolaser sensor, which detects the adsorption of biomolecules from the lasing wavelength shift. It is a promising device, which balances a high sensitivity, high resolution, small size, easy integration, simple setup and low cost. In particular with a nanoslot structure, it achieves a super-sensitivity in protein sensing whose detection limit is three orders of magnitude lower than that of standard surface-plasmon-resonance sensors. Our investigations indicate that the nanoslot acts as a protein condenser powered by the optical gradient force, which arises from the strong localization of laser mode in the nanoslot.