Microfluidic sensor based on integrated optical hollow waveguides

A simple integrated optical refractometric sensor based on hollow-core antiresonant reflecting optical wave-guides is proposed. The sensor uses the antiresonant reflecting guidance mechanism and permits one to measure the refractive index of a liquid filling the core by simply monitoring the transmitted spectrum. The device has been made with standard silicon technology, and the experimental results confirm numerical simulations performed in one- and two-dimensional geometry. The sensor exhibits a linear response over a wide measurement range (1.3330-1.4450) and a resolution of 9 x 10(-4) and requires a small analyte Volume. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.