TY - JOUR
T1 - Single Nanoparticle Detection Using Optical Microcavities
AU - Zhi, Yanyan
AU - Yu, Xiao Chong
AU - Gong, Qihuang
AU - Yang, Lan
AU - Xiao, Yun Feng
N1 - Funding Information:
Y.Z. and X.-C.Y. contributed equally to this work. We thank Professor Al Meldrum and Mayra Amezcua for helping us editing the language. This work is supported by the National Research Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0301302, No. 2013CB921904 and No. 2013CB328704), the NSFC (Grants No. 61435001, No. 11474011, No. 11222440, and No. 11654003), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2015M580909).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
PY - 2017/3/28
Y1 - 2017/3/28
N2 - Detection of nanoscale objects is highly desirable in various fields such as early-stage disease diagnosis, environmental monitoring and homeland security. Optical microcavity sensors are renowned for ultrahigh sensitivities due to strongly enhanced light-matter interaction. This review focuses on single nanoparticle detection using optical whispering gallery microcavities and photonic crystal microcavities, both of which have been developing rapidly over the past few years. The reactive and dissipative sensing methods, characterized by light-analyte interactions, are explained explicitly. The sensitivity and the detection limit are essentially determined by the cavity properties, and are limited by the various noise sources in the measurements. On the one hand, recent advances include significant sensitivity enhancement using techniques to construct novel microcavity structures with reduced mode volumes, to localize the mode field, or to introduce optical gain. On the other hand, researchers attempt to lower the detection limit by improving the spectral resolution, which can be implemented by suppressing the experimental noises. We also review the methods of achieving a better temporal resolution by employing mode locking techniques or cavity ring up spectroscopy. In conclusion, outlooks on the possible ways to implement microcavity-based sensing devices and potential applications are provided.
AB - Detection of nanoscale objects is highly desirable in various fields such as early-stage disease diagnosis, environmental monitoring and homeland security. Optical microcavity sensors are renowned for ultrahigh sensitivities due to strongly enhanced light-matter interaction. This review focuses on single nanoparticle detection using optical whispering gallery microcavities and photonic crystal microcavities, both of which have been developing rapidly over the past few years. The reactive and dissipative sensing methods, characterized by light-analyte interactions, are explained explicitly. The sensitivity and the detection limit are essentially determined by the cavity properties, and are limited by the various noise sources in the measurements. On the one hand, recent advances include significant sensitivity enhancement using techniques to construct novel microcavity structures with reduced mode volumes, to localize the mode field, or to introduce optical gain. On the other hand, researchers attempt to lower the detection limit by improving the spectral resolution, which can be implemented by suppressing the experimental noises. We also review the methods of achieving a better temporal resolution by employing mode locking techniques or cavity ring up spectroscopy. In conclusion, outlooks on the possible ways to implement microcavity-based sensing devices and potential applications are provided.
KW - optical microcavities
KW - photonic crystals
KW - single nanoparticle detection
KW - whispering gallery modes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85008329610&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/adma.201604920
DO - 10.1002/adma.201604920
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28060436
AN - SCOPUS:85008329610
SN - 0935-9648
VL - 29
JO - Advanced Materials
JF - Advanced Materials
IS - 12
M1 - 1604920
ER -