Optical sensing in microfluidic lab-on-a-chip by femtosecond-laser-written waveguides

Anal Bioanal Chem. 2009 Feb;393(4):1209-16. doi: 10.1007/s00216-008-2399-8. Epub 2008 Oct 7.

Abstract

We use direct femtosecond laser writing to integrate optical waveguides into a commercial fused silica capillary electrophoresis chip. High-quality waveguides crossing the microfluidic channels are fabricated and used to optically address, with high spatial selectivity, their content. Fluorescence from the optically excited volume is efficiently collected at a 90 degree angle by a high numerical aperture fiber, resulting in a highly compact and portable device. To test the platform we performed electrophoresis and detection of a 23-mer oligonucleotide plug. Our approach is quite powerful because it allows the integration of photonic functionalities, by simple post-processing, into commercial LOCs fabricated with standard techniques.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Fluorescence
  • Microfluidics / instrumentation*
  • Optics and Photonics*