Improving Detection Sensitivity for Nanoscale Targets Through Combined Photonic and Plasmonic Techniques

G. Zhang[1], Y. Zhao[1]
[1]Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA
Published in 2013

Photonic technique such as the whispering gallery mode (WGM) is often used for detection of small particles like bacteria and viruses. It offers good detection sensitivity and is advantageous over other detection techniques because the detection can be label free. However, the detection sensitivity may not be sufficient when the size of the detection target is in nanoscale. To change this, we use COMSOL to explore the combination of the WGM technique with plasmonic techniques such as Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS). Our simulation result shows that by designing the right setup and selecting the appropriate frequency, the three techniques can work in synergy and the detection sensitivity can be increased by three orders.