Photonic crystal sensors use

photonic crystal A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of Crystal structure, natural crystals gives rise to X-ray crystallograp ...

nanostructure A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structures. Nanostructural detail is microstructure at nanoscale. In describing nanostructures, it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimen ...

s composed of periodic arrangements of

dielectric materials In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an electrical insulator that can be polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the materia ...

that interact with light depending on their particular structure, reflecting lights of specific wavelengths at specific angles. Any change in the periodicity or

refractive index In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is the ratio of the apparent speed of light in the air or vacuum to the speed in the medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or refrac ...

of the structure can give rise to a change in the reflected color, or the color perceived by the observer or a

spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure Spectrum, spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomeno ...

. That simple principle makes them useful colorimetric intuitive sensors for different applications including, but not limited to, environmental analysis, temperature sensing, magnetic sensing, biosensing, diagnostics, food quality control, security, and mechanical sensing. Many animals in nature such as fish or beetles employ responsive photonic crystals for

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

, signaling or to bait their prey. The variety of materials utilizable in such structures ranging from inorganic, organic as well as plasmonic metal nanoparticles makes these structures highly customizable and versatile. In the case of inorganic materials, variation of the refractive index is the most commonly exploited effect in sensing, while periodicity change is more commonly exhibited in polymer-based

sensor A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...

s. Besides their small size, current developments in manufacturing technologies have made them easy and cheap to fabricate on a larger scale, making them mass-producible and practical.

Types and structures

Biosensors and integrated lab-on-a-chip

As properly designed photonic crystals exhibit high sensitivity, selectivity, stability, and their electricity-free operation if needed, they have become highly researched portable biological sensors. Developments in analysis, device miniaturization, fluidic design and integration have catapulted the development of integrated photonic crystal sensors in what is known as lab-on-a-chip devices of high sensitivity, low limit of detection, faster response time and low cost. A large range of analytes of biological interest such as

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

cells,

glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...

and

antibodies An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that caus ...

can be detected with this kind of sensors, providing fast, cheap and accurate diagnostic and health-monitoring tools that can detect concentrations as low as 15 nM. Certain chemical or biological target molecules can be integrated within the structure to provide specificity.

Chemical sensors

As chemical analytes have their own specific refractive indices, they can fill porous photonic structures, altering their effective index and consequently their color in a finger-print like manner. On the other hand, they can alter the volume of

polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...

-based structures, resulting in a change in the periodicity leading to a similar end effect. In

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

-containing

hydrogels A hydrogel is a biphasic material, a mixture of porous and permeable solids and at least 10% of water or other interstitial fluid. The solid phase is a water insoluble three dimensional network of polymers, having absorbed a large amount of ...

, their selective swelling results in their specificity. Applications in gaseous and aqueous environment have been studied to detect concentrations of chemical species, solvents, vapors, ions, pH and humidity. The specificity and sensitivity can be controlled by the appropriate choice of materials and their interaction with the analytes, that can achieve even label-free sensors. The concentration of chemical species in vapor or liquid phases as well as in more complex mixtures can be determined with high confidence.

Mechanical sensors

Different mechanical signals such as

pressure Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and eve ...

, strain, torsion and

bending In applied mechanics, bending (also known as flexure) characterizes the behavior of a slender structural element subjected to an external Structural load, load applied perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the element. The structural eleme ...

can be detected with photonic crystal sensors. Commonly, they are based on the deformation-induced change in the

lattice constant A lattice constant or lattice parameter is one of the physical dimensions and angles that determine the geometry of the unit cells in a crystal lattice, and is proportional to the distance between atoms in the crystal. A simple cubic crystal has ...

s in flexible materials such as

elastomer An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus (E) and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''ela ...

ic composites or colloidal crystals, causing a mechano-chromic effect as they stretch or contract.

3D photonic crystals

Synthetic opals are three dimensional photonic crystals usually made of self-assembled nanospheres of diameters on the order of hundreds of nanometers, where the high refractive index material is that of the spheres and the low-index material is air or another filler. On the other hand, inverse opals are structures where the interstitial space between the spheres is filled with another material and the spheres are consequently removed, providing a larger free volume for faster

diffusion Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...

of chemical species.

Photonic crystal fibers

Photonic crystal fibers are a special types of optical fibers that has contain air holes distributed in specific patterns around a solid or hollow core. Due to their high sensitivity, inherent flexibility, and small diameters, they can be used in a variety of situations requiring high robustness and portability. Compared to traditional optical fibers, they are highly birefringent with tailorable dispersion, limited loss and endless single-mode propagation for a long range of wavelengths and have a very fast sensing response.

2D gratings and slabs

One-dimensional slabs with two dimensional order cause by selective removal of material, creating a pattern of holes or grooves in an otherwise homogeneous material is a popular photonic crystal structure used in sensing.

Fabry-Pérot mirrors

Fabry-Pérot mirrors are planar photonic crystal where the periodicity is maintained only in the z-dimension. Sputtered porous inorganic sensors, spin-coated polymer sensors and self-assembled block-

copolymers In polymer chemistry, a copolymer is a polymer derived from more than one species of monomer. The polymerization of monomers into copolymers is called copolymerization. Copolymers obtained from the copolymerization of two monomer species are som ...

are a few of the commonly used planar 1D structures.

References

{{reflist Photonics Sensors