Porous Silicon Sensors

Abstract

Porous silicon (PSi) has been recognized as an advantageous material for use in optical biosensors due to its large internal surface area, ability to form multilayer optical structures, and compatibility with standard silicon lithographic techniques. We demonstrate an order of magnitude improvement in small molecule detection sensitivity for on-chip PSi ring resonators and photonic crystal nanobeams compared to the same structures fabricated on silicon-on-insulator wafers. Moreover, we demonstrate that PSi optical structures can be exploited for mobile diagnostics by using a smartphone with no additional functional accessories to detect color changes in the PSi that result from molecule capture.