Design of an Artificial Opal/Photonic Crystal Interface for Alcohol Intoxication Assessment: Capillary Condensation in Pores and Photonic Materials Work Together.

Alcohol intoxication has a dangerous effect on human health and is often associated with a risk of catastrophic injuries and alcohol-related crimes. A demand to address this problem adheres to the design of new sensor systems for the real-time monitoring of exhaled breath. We introduce a new sensor system based on a porous hydrophilic layer of submicron silica particles (SiO SMPs) placed on a one-dimensional photonic crystal made of TaO/SiO dielectric layers whose operation relies on detecting changes in the position of surface wave resonance during capillary condensation in pores.

Broadband silicon grating couplers with high efficiency and a robust design.

A record-high efficiency and bandwidth for a fiber-to-chip grating coupler have been achieved with a robust design and cost-effective fabrication on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The design optimization involves the usual geometrical parameters, period, and fill factor, and a mode matching for the fiber output and grating. The measured coupling efficiency for TE polarization and 1 dB bandwidth are -2.

Effect of Surface Modification of Multifunctional Nanocomposite Drug Delivery Carriers with DARPin on Their Biodistribution and .

We present a targeted drug delivery system for therapy and diagnostics that is based on a combination of contrasting, cytotoxic, and cancer-cell-targeting properties of multifunctional carriers. The system uses multilayered polymer microcapsules loaded with magnetite and doxorubicin. Loading of magnetite nanoparticles into the polymer shell by freezing-induced loading (FIL) allowed the loading efficiency to be increased 5-fold, compared with the widely used layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly.

SERS Platform Based on Hollow-Core Microstructured Optical Fiber: Technology of UV-Mediated Gold Nanoparticle Growth.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique for biosensing. However, SERS analysis has several concerns: the signal is limited by a number of molecules and the area of the plasmonic substrate in the laser hotspot, and quantitative analysis in a low-volume droplet is confusing due to the change of concentration during quick drying. The usage of hollow-core microstructured optical fibers (HC-MOFs) is thought to be an effective way to improve SERS sensitivity and limit of detection through the effective irradiation of a small sample volume filling the fiber capillaries.

Surface-specific washing-free immunosensor for time-resolved cortisol monitoring.

Cortisol is a steroid hormone that regulates a wide range of vital processes. Its level changes with diurnal rhythm and reacts to stress. Measurement of cortisol levels is still a complex multi-step process.

Multispectral sensing of biological liquids with hollow-core microstructured optical fibres.

The state of the art in optical biosensing is focused on reaching high sensitivity at a single wavelength by using any type of optical resonance. This common strategy, however, disregards the promising possibility of simultaneous measurements of a bioanalyte's refractive index over a broadband spectral domain. Here, we address this issue by introducing the approach of in-fibre multispectral optical sensing (IMOS).