tapered optical fiber sensor for label-free detection of biomolecules锥形光纤传感器label-free生物分子的检测.pdfVIP

Sensors 2011, 11, 3780-3790; doi:10.3390/s110403780 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Tapered Optical Fiber Sensor for Label-Free Detection of Biomolecules Ye Tian 1,*, Wenhui Wang 1, Nan Wu 1, Xiaotian Zou 2 and Xingwei Wang 1,2,* 1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Ave., Lowell, MA 01854, USA; E-Mails: wwhclp02@ (W.W.); nan_wu@ (N.W.) 2 Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology Doctoral Program, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Ave., Lowell, MA 01854, USA; E-Mail: xiaotian_zou@ * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mails: ye_tian@ (Y.T.); xingwei_wang@ (X.W.); Tel.: +1-978-934-3355; Fax: +1-978-934-3098. Received: 11 February 2011; in revised form: 23 March 2011 / Accepted: 25 March 2011 / Published: 28 March 2011 Abstract: This paper presents a fast, highly sensitive and low-cost tapered optical fiber biosensor that enables the label-free detection of biomolecules. The sensor takes advantage of the interference effect between the fiber’s first two propagation modes along the taper waist region. The biomolecules bonded on the taper surface were determined by demodulating the transmission spectrum phase shift. Because of the sharp spectrum fringe signals, as well as a relatively long biomolecule testing region, the sensor displayed a fast response and was highly sensitive. To better understand the influence of various bio