Planar lightwave platforms for bio- and chemical sensing

Simple planar waveguides are well established components for the optical interrogation of chemical processes at surfaces, with total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) elements having a long pedigree and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors finding widespread use in biomolecular research, for example. Key attributes of these devices are that the optical fields are confined to a submicrometer region above the solid surface of the transducer and that the light is delivered to the surface in a well-controlled way without passing through the bulk of the sample