Integrated optical sensors for the chemical domain

During the last decade there has been a rapidly growing interest in integrated optical (IO) sensors, especially because many of them principally allow for sensitive, real-time, label-free on-site measurements of the concentration of (bio-) chemical species. This review aims at giving an overview of the most relevant developments in this area. After a general introduction into the field of IO sensors for the chemical domain, relevant aspects of integrated optics and chemical sensing are presented in short. A large variety of IO sensing platforms are introduced and discussed: interferometers, resonators, coupling-based devices such as grating couplers and surface plasmon resonance based sensors and finally a new class of sensors based on chemically induced field profile changes. Strong and weak points of principle and of configurations based on these principles are indicated and the main performance data of the IO sensing platforms, especially the obtained resolution, are indicated. Best resolutions of the chemically induced refractive indices on the order of magnitude 10(-6)-10(-8) RIU can be obtained, corresponding to a resolution of 10(-3)-10(-5) nm in the chemically induced growth of layer thickness of chemo-optical transducer materials. Depending on the analyte and the type of transduction layer chemical concentrations down to some ppb or some pg ml(-1) can be determined. Several IO sensing systems are commercially available. Extension of individual sensors to sensor arrays is treated and finally an outlook for the future is given.