Microfabrication and Applications of Opto-Microfluidic Sensors

A review of research activities on opto-microfluidic sensors carried out by the research groups in Canada is presented. After a brief introduction of this exciting research field, detailed discussion is focused on different techniques for the fabrication of opto-microfluidic sensors, and various applications of these devices for bioanalysis, chemical detection, and optical measurement. Our current research on femtosecond laser microfabrication of optofluidic devices is introduced and some experimental results are elaborated. The research on opto-microfluidics provides highly sensitive opto-microfluidic sensors for practical applications with significant advantages of portability, efficiency, sensitivity, versatility, and low cost

Design and fabrication of a planar PDMS transmission grating microspectrometer

We describe the monolithic integration of microfluidic channels, optical waveguides, a collimating lens and a curved focusing transmission grating in a single PDMS-based microsystem. All optical and fluidic components of the device were simultaneously formed in a single layer of high refractive index (n 3c1.43) PDMS by soft lithography. Outer layers of lower-index (n 3c1.41) PDMS were subsequently added to provide optical and fluidic confinement. Here, we focus on the design and characterization of the microspectrometer part, which employs a novel self-focusing strategy based on cylindrical facets, and exhibits resolution <10 nm in the visible wavelength range. The dispersive behavior of the grating was analyzed both experimentally and using numerical simulations, and the results are in good agreement with simplified analytical predictions. \ua9 2013 Optical Society of America.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Gold nanoparticles 1D array as mechanochromic strain sensor

A new strategy to produce easily scalable patterned array of gold nanoparticles on flexible substrate is presented. Aligned gold nanoparticles 1D arrays deposited on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were produced by a combination of water-in-oil self-assembling and lift-off microprinting technique. Morphological and optical properties of the obtained structures were investigated by AFM, absorption and reflectance spectroscopy. The optical response of the structured elastomer in respect to uniaxial deformation was measured in order to assess its suitability as strain sensor