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Applied Physics Express 8, 092004 (2015)
http://dx.doi.org/10.7567/APEX.8.092004

Multiwavelength guided mode resonance sensor array

Sakoolkan Boonruang1* and Waleed S. Mohammed2
1
Photonics Technology Laboratory, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC),
Thailand Science Park, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
2
Bangkok University Center of Research in Optoelectronics, Communications and Control Systems (BU-CROCCS),
School of Engineering, Bangkok University, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
E-mail: sakoolkan.boonruang@nectec.or.th
Received July 10, 2015; accepted August 12, 2015; published online September 2, 2015

A multiwavelength guided mode resonance (GMR) sensor array is proposed to minimize the need of complex detection systems. Using a chirped
grating in the GMR sensor, a single spectrometer is needed to simultaneously receive the signal from each array without modulating or mechanical
scanning techniques. The array elements placed along the direction of the grating chirp can form the GMR structure, and each array element
shows a different average period. Thus, the resonance condition for each array element differs from the next. A multiline resonance spectrum can
be detected without time delay concerns in each array. A two-channel sensor array is experimentally demonstrated in this study.
© 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

any optical devices and methods, such as surface CCD array measures the spectrum of each point along the

M plasmon resonance, diffractive optical elements,

interferometers, and optical waveguides, have been
constantly demonstrated for chemical and biological sensing
applications.1,2) The advantages of optical sensors are high
sensitivity, fast response, and the ability to be implemented as
label-free sensors with no electromagnetic interference. The
sensing scheme detects the change in refractive index and the
additional film deposited on the sensor surface. This alters the
optical signal such as the wavelength=angular resonance
spectrum or intensity level. In the utilization of a periodic
structure and a waveguide, resonance is due to phase match-
ing between coupled modes or guided and diffracted waves
such as in the case of a leaky waveguide structure.3–9) They
can be in various forms and are generally known as guided
mode resonance3,4) or photonic crystal slab-waveguide5–9)
structures. The resonance effect is referred to in this Letter as
guided mode resonance (GMR). At resonance, the incident
light is totally reflected with highly angular and spectral
selectivity. The resonance relies on structural geometrical
features such as the grating period=depth, film thickness, and
material’s optical properties. Hence, a sensing layer can be
included to be part of the waveguide region. That allows
molecular binding on the sensing surface to strongly con-
tribute to the shift of the waveguide properties and hence the
resonance spectrum. The measurement can detect both trans-
mission and reflection. Resonance wavelength is obtainable
within a broad spectrum range.
GMR devices with a uniform grating have been presented
in numerous biosensing applications such as the detection of
viruses,6) proteins,7) DNAs,8) and cell–surface interactions.9)
To realize a complex detection, implementing a sensor
array is necessary. Lately, many readout systems have been
reported in the literature. However, owing to measurement
time concerns, a parallel detection system is brought into the
attention of many researchers. In 2002, Cunningham et al.10)
proposed a readout system using arrays of a fiber bundle
probe and a spectrometer. Each detection array individually
measures a resonance spectrum from each sensing spot. The
system is demonstrated for a 96-well plate. The detection
array allows for the measurement along one column; thus, a
one-directional scanning mechanism is included to measure
the signal from one column to another. An alternative
approach is the use of an imaging spectrometer,11) where a
092004-1
beam. To do so, the line scanning mechanisms are included.
By neglecting the usage of a complex spectrometer unit, a
signal modulation system is required.12) This, however, does
not reduce the cost of the system or its complexity.
In this Letter, we propose an alternative approach of
parallel detection with a single spectrometer without using a
signal modulator. This is performed by implementing a
multiwavelength GMR sensor array, where a chirped grating
is used in the GMR structure. The variation in grating
periodicity along the structure causes the resonance to shift
accordingly. The sensing array is then formed by placing
finite-size apertures along the chirp direction. Being separated
along the axis, each array element has a different average
period. That corresponds to a different resonance peak in the
reflection spectrum. This configuration allows for the usage
of a single spectrometer to receive a series of resonance peaks
in the reflection spectrum. Each resonance peak represents
the resonance wavelength of each array. Thus, changes on
the sensor array can be simultaneously measured through the
shift of each resonance peak relative to each array element.
Referring to the phase matching condition between a
guided mode and first-order diffracted waves, the phase
equation is written as Eq. (1) when including a chirped
periodicity:
0 ðxÞ
neff,m ð0 ; xÞ  sin inc  : ð1Þ
ðxÞ
Here, neff,m is the modal effective index, θinc is the angle of
incidence, and Λ(x) and λ0(x) are the period of the chirped
grating and the resonance spectrum along the x-axis, respec-
tively. Here, the modal effective index is assumed to be
constant around a position x along the grating (slow variation
around a small region). Thus, at normal incidence, the
resonance wavelength λ0 can be approximated to be linearly
proportional to the grating period.
The proposed multiwavelength sensing scheme is applied
through an array of sensing spots aligned along the x-axis,
where the resonance of each sensing spot depends on its
location as described in Eq. (1). The finite size of each array
contains a variation in grating period, which in turn increases
the resonance line width especially in a larger sensing spot
size. Resonances from two successive arrays might not be
distinguishable. Therefore, the dimensions of the array and
© 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Appl. Phys. Express 8, 092004 (2015)
Fig. 1. Schematic of multiwavelength GMR sensor array.
grating chirp have to be properly selected to ensure that the
resonance spectrum of each sensing spot can be individually
resolved. The resonance wavelength, line width, and opera-
tion range (maximum shift of the resonance peak) determine
the maximum number of spots in the array. A desired number
of elements are achieved through optimum design of the
spot size and separation of each array and grating chirp.
Compared with the uniform grating, the chirped grating helps
to eliminate crossed coupling between the sensor arrays
that may reduce the efficiency of the sensor. The molecular
binding on the sensing spot or changes in refractive index
affect the guiding properties that can be interpreted in terms
of the change in modal effective index in Eq. (1). The
resonance wavelength shifts accordingly. For the proposed
device, the changes on the sensor array can be detected
simultaneously via tracking the individual resonance shifts.
The structure implemented in this study is described in a
drawing in Fig. 1. It comprises of a chirped grating, having a
period Λ(x) and a depth tg, fabricated on a low-index film
having a refractive index ngf . Then, a high-index film, having
a refractive index nf and a thickness t f , is deposited on top of
the grating. To obtain a high-efficiency device, a material
with low absorption in the working spectral range is required.
Here, the chirped grating is fabricated by laser interference
lithography.13,14) With this approach, the chirped periodicity
can be generated by the interference between a focusing
beam and a parallel beam as described in Fig. 2. The pattern
periodicity is proportional to the angles of interference
ð1 ; 2 Þ as well as to the distance between a recording
position and the focus point of the focusing beam (d). The
interference pattern of these two beams can be written in
terms of intensity as in Eq. (2). To simplify the equation, one
focuses on the intensity along the x-axis at y = 0:
  
2 k0 x2
Iðx; 0Þ ¼ A0 2 þ 2 cos k0 d þ  k0 xðsin 1 þ sin 2 Þ :
2d
ð2Þ
A0 in Eq. (2) is the electric field magnitude of each beam,
which is assumed to be equal. k0 is the propagating con-
stant in air: k0 = 2π=λ. Thus, the periodicity of the inter-
ference beam along the x-axis [Λ(x)] can be written as

ðxÞ ¼ : ð3Þ
x
þ sin 1 þ sin 2
2d
In the experiment, the interference beam is generated using
a 50 mW HeCd laser with 442 nm wavelength and recorded
on a positive photoresist film (Shipley Microposit S1805)
coated on a glass substrate. The recorded pattern is then used
as a master mold. To make a GMR sensor, the master mold is
transferred to a low-refractive-index spin-on-glass (SOG) film
by a nanoimprint technique.15) Here, the imprinting mold is
092004-2
S. Boonruang and W. S. Mohammed
Fig. 2. Schematic showing beam interference for generating a chirped
grating’s pattern.
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. SEM images of a fabricated device: (a) side view and (b) top view.
generated by first casting a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)
mold from a photoresist master mold. The PDMS mold is then
placed on the SOG film coated on a glass substrate (BK-7
having a refractive index of 1.52) with a proper force where
the film is hardened by a thermal curing process before
peeling off the PDMS mold. The SOG with part number
400F (refractive index: 1.4) purchased from Filmtronics16) is
used. Finally, the imprinted grating is deposited with a
high-refractive-index titanium dioxide film (TiO2 having a
refractive index of 2.4) by a sputtering technique.
Figure 3 shows the scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
images of the fabricated GMR. Figure 3(a) shows a cross
section of the structure that clearly shows the two film layers:
the imprinted SOG and TiO2 films. The image demonstrates
that the obtained grating has a depth of ∼0.11 µm. There
remains a film layer under the imprinted grating with a thick-
ness of ∼0.45 µm. This layer does not prevent resonance.
The TiO2 film has a thickness of ∼0.06 µm. The top view
in Fig. 3(b) demonstrates the uniformity of the fabricated
grating.
On the basis of the SEM images taken at different points
along the grating chirp direction (x-axis), the period of the
fabricated grating is plotted in Fig. 4 (red-dot graph) in
comparison with the calculation results (black-square solid
line) from Eq. (3), where the angles used to record the inter-
ference beam are θ1 ∼ 71° and θ2 ∼ 1.2°, and the distance d is
∼6 cm. The device is ∼6 mm wide. The measurement data
has a similar trend to the calculation results. The period from
one side to another is linearly varied from ∼0.46 to ∼0.48
µm. The variation in the measured period is due to the
accuracy of extracting the period information from the SEM
images.
Figure 5 shows the optical excitation and detection system
for the multiwavelength GMR-based sensor. A broadband
light source, which is a tungsten–halogen light source (Ocean
Optics HL-2000), is used. A collimated beam is coupled
© 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Appl. Phys. Express 8, 092004 (2015)
Fig. 4. Plot of measured grating periods along x-axis in comparison with
calculated grating periods from Eq. (3).
Fig. 5. Schematic of optical system for a multiwavelength GMR-based
sensor array.
to the system through a multimode fiber attached to a
collimating lens as shown. The beam is vertically incident to
the sensor from the substrate side using a 45° mirror. The
reflected beam is separated from the incident beam using a
50 : 50 beam splitter cube. As a one-dimensional (1D)
chirped grating is polarization-dependent, a linear polarizer is
applied in the system to filter out either TE or TM reso-
nances. An array of apertures is added under the sensor chip
to allow light incident on specific locations of the grating.
The reflected beams from each array are collected using
a collimator lens and coupled to a spectrometer (Thorlabs
CCS200 compact CCD spectrometer) via a multimode fiber.
For the measurement, either a microfluidic flow channel or a
sensor array cuvette can be applied on the sensor surface.
To examine the shift of the resonance peak versus grating
location, a one-spot aperture of 1 mm diameter is scanned
along the grating axis. The experimental results in Fig. 6
measure the resonance spectrum when dropping deionized
(DI) water (refractive index: ∼1.33) on the sensor surface in
comparison with the simulation results. The plots in Fig. 6(a)
indicate the reflection spectrum of the TM0 resonance mode
at each position along the fabricated sensor in the x-direction
from x1 to x6, where x1 locates at the position with the largest
period [ðx ¼ 0Þ  480 nm]. As described in the plot in
Fig. 4, the period is gradually reduced from x1 to x6 (x = 0,
1.5, 2.25, 3.75, 5.25, and 6 mm). The peak resonance is
shifted toward a shorter wavelength when scanning from
x1 to x6. The plots in Fig. 6(b) present the shift of the reso-
nance peak wavelength along the x-axis. In the graph, the
experimental results (black-triangle solid line) are compared
with calculations through rigorous coupled wave analysis
(RCWA).17,18) In the calculations, there exist two plots. The
red-dotted dashed line presents the calculations based on the
092004-3
S. Boonruang and W. S. Mohammed
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. Experimental results of reflection spectrum (a) and resonance peak
wavelength along a multiwavelength GMR sensor in x-axis (b) in
comparison with RCWA calculations.
linear fit of the experimentally measured periods [Eq. (i) in
Fig. 4]. The black-square solid line shows the calculation
results obtained when applying a period value from Eq. (3).
As demonstrated, resonance shifts from both the experimen-
tal and calculation results have similar trends. From the plots
in Fig. 6(a), the average line width of the six peaks is ap-
proximately 12 nm. This allows for at least three sensing
spots that can be achieved when using a 1-mm-diameter
aperture and a 3 mm separation of each spot (center to
center). This value can be further improved by reducing the
aperture size.
To demonstrate the feasibility of a multiwavelength sensor
array, a two-spot aperture of 1 mm diameter is used to form
an array of two sensing spots along the x-axis as in the
configuration in Fig. 5. Here, a two-channel flow cell and a
two-channel aperture are added to the sensor chip. To ensure
the resolved resonance spectrum, the sensing channels ch1
and ch2 are placed at the locations x ∼ 6 mm and x ∼ 0 mm,
respectively. The reflection spectrum obtained when measur-
ing with DI water is shown in the graph in Fig. 7. As seen,
two resonance peaks at wavelengths of ∼0.675 and ∼0.695
µm are presented. These peaks indicate resonances at ch1 and
ch2, respectively, as observed in the graph. The detection
scheme is performed by simultaneously tracking the reso-
nance peaks at each channel. To measure the detection limit,
the glycerol solution mixed with DI water at different con-
centrations is used. In the experimental step, each solution is
fed into both channels simultaneously, while DI water is
tested between concentrations. The resonance wavelength of
each channel is recorded and plotted versus time. The time
© 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Appl. Phys. Express 8, 092004 (2015)
Fig. 7. Reflection spectrum of a 2-channel multiwavelength GMR sensor
array.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 8. Experimental results for sensitivity of 2-channel multiwavelength
GMR sensor array: (a) time plot and (b) plot of resonance shift versus
refractive index.
plots are shown in Fig. 8(a). In Fig. 8(b), the resonance
wavelength at each channel is plotted versus the refractive
index of the solution under measurement. The refractive
index of each solution is first measured using a refractometer
(ATAGO RX-5000-CX). As seen, the sensing sensitivity
of each channel is calculated by a linear fitting of the plots.
The recorded sensitivities are 160 nm=RIU for ch1 and 140
nm=RIU for ch2. The signal’s standard deviation extracted
from the time plot is approximately 10−3 nm. This indicates
092004-4
S. Boonruang and W. S. Mohammed
a detection limit of up to 7 × 10−6 RIU. In addition, the
fabricated device can be further implemented for a higher
number of sensor arrays.
The proposed system performance is dictated by the ability
to resolve two separate peaks with a high signal-to-noise
ratio. Increasing the aperture size to obtain a higher signal
causes peak broadening due to a large period variation. A
smaller size brings a narrower peak with less power. The
optimization of the grating period function and aperture size
for each channel can allow the implementation of a higher
number of spots. A chirped grating with a broader range of
period variations can ensure a distinguishable resonance peak
wavelength. However, the main drawback is the fact that it
increases the resonance line width. To ensure a narrow line
width, a sensor readout system utilizing a smaller aperture
size and a higher light source power to maintain the signal-
to-noise ratio is necessary. With the presented fabrication
approach, a larger-field-of-view focusing system in an inter-
ference lithography setup is required to obtain the chirped
grating with a broader period variation. The proposed device
has high potential for further implementation of a low-cost
multiple optical channel detection system.
Acknowledgment This research was supported by a grant from the sensor
technology platform from the National Electronics and Computer Technology
Center (NECTEC), National Science and Technology Development Agency
(NSTDA).
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© 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics