Label-free biosensor based on long period grating

Long period gratings have been recently proposed as label-free optical devices for biochemical sensing. A biochemical interaction along the grating region changes the biolayer refractive index and a change in the fiber transmission spectrum occurs. The fiber biofunctionalization was performed with a novel chemistry using Eudragit L100 copolymer as opposed to the commonly-used silanization procedure. An IgG/anti-IgG bioassay was carried out for studying the antigen/antibody interaction. The biosensor was fully characterized, monitoring the kinetics during the antibody immobilization and achieving the calibration curve of the assay. To compare the biosensor performance, two LPG-based biosensors with distinct grating periods were characterized following the same bioassay protocol. Experimental results demonstrated an enhancement of the biosensor performance when the fundamental core mode of a single-mode fiber couples with a higher order cladding mode. Considering an LPG manufactured on a bare optical fiber, in which the coupling occurs with the 7-th cladding mode, a dynamic signal range of 0.33 nm, a working range of 1.7 – 1450 mg L-1 and a LOD of 500 μg L-1 were achieved