Polymer slab waveguides for the optical detection of nanoparticles in evanescent field based biosensors

We present a polymer optical waveguide integration technology for the detection of nanoparticles in an evanescent field based biosensor. In the proposed biosensor concept, super-paramagnetic nanoparticles are used as optical contrast labels. The nanoparticles capture target molecules from a sample fluid and bind to the sensor surface with biological specificity. The surface-bound nanoparticles are then detected using frustration of an evanescent field. In the current paper we elaborate on the polymer waveguides which are used to generate a well-defined optical field for nanoparticle detection

Waveguide structures for efficient evanescent field coupling to zero mode waveguides

The use of waveguide structures is examined to improve the efficiency of evanescent field coupling into zero-mode waveguides. Model calculations show that waveguide excitation using diffractive structures, increases the magnitude of the evanescent electric field by an order of magnitude compared to far field excitation of the evanescent field. A more efficient excitation of fluorescent markers used in e.g. sequencing instrumentation ultimately enables real-time single molecule detection using laser systems with moderate output power

Molecular excitation in the Interstellar Medium: recent advances in collisional, radiative and chemical processes

We review the different excitation processes in the interstellar mediumComment: Accepted in Chem. Re

On the propensity rules for inelastic NH3-rare gas collisions

Contains fulltext : 6830.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

PPRS: Production skills and their relation to product, process, and resource

To model increasingly adaptive production systems, skills are used to describe generic capabilities of the system components. In this paper, the authors extend the well-known division of production entities into product, process, and resource (PPR) with a skill definition. There are two main advantages for this approach: First, using PPR for the skill definition allows easy integration into existing models and tools. Second, there is a natural tendency to define very generic skills to capture all possible use cases. But at some point, skills have to be translated into precise instructions for execution. The model makes this dichotomy explicit and provides a common taxonomy for stakeholders concerned with skills on different abstraction levels

Close coupling calculations on rotational excitation and inversion of NH3 by collisions with Ar

Contains fulltext : 6855.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Erratum: Close coupling calculations on rotational excitation and inversion of NH3 by collisions with Ar

Contains fulltext : 6840.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access