• Jane, Andrew
• Shapter, Joseph G.
• Hodges, Alastair
• Dronov, Roman

Abstract

<p>A high fidelity interferometric transducer is designed based on platinum-coated nanoporous alumina films. The ultrathin metal coating significantly improves fidelity of the interferometric fringe patterns in aqueous solution and increases the signal-to-noise ratio. The performance of this transducer is tested with respect to refractive index unit (RIU) sensitivity measured as a change in effective optical thickness (EOT) in response to a solvent change and compared to porous silicon based transducers. RIU sensitivity in the order of 55% is attainable for porous alumina providing excellent signal-to-noise ratio, which exceeds the sensitivity of current interferometric transducers. Finally, as a proof-of-principle, we demonstrate biosensing with two distinct immunoglobulin antibodies.</p>

Topics

• porous
• impedance spectroscopy
• Platinum
• Silicon