Research project

WaveSense (DFM.AD005.356)

Thematic area

Physical sciences and technologies of matter

Project area

Fotonica: dai processi fisici ai componenti e sistemi e relative applicazioni (DFM.AD005)

Structure responsible for the research project

Institute of Nanotechnology (NANOTEC)

Project manager

DANIELE SANVITTO
Phone number: 3200116964
Email: daniele.sanvitto@nanotec.cnr.it

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to over 200 countries and affected over three million confirmed people. There is an urgent need for assays for prognostic and predictive biomarkers that can identify patients at higher risk and most likely to respond to aggressive treatments. These assays must show high sensitivity, to detect minimal changes in the early stages of infection, and a fast response, suitable for point-of-care applications in A&E departments. State of the art assays for
these biomarkers are generally based on the Luminex MPX platform, which has a sensitivity in the low pMolar range, or on qPCR technology for the detection of the corresponding RNAs, which has a relatively slow turn around time.
The goal of this project is to realize an ultra-sensitive electro-optical device able to reliably detect the presence of low levels of biomarkers linked to inflammatory processes. This capability is closely related to the high sensitivity of semiconductor-based systems to variation of their optical properties.

Goals

The idea, in a nutshell, is to use these active waveguides made with a strongly nonlinear material-like Perovskites, transition metal dichalcogenides or Gallium-Arsenide-strongly interacting with the propagating photons, to change the transmission along the waveguide, depending on an electrically controlled optical-diode placed between the two ends of a waveguide.
In normal conditions, the transmission of photons, injected into the waveguide by an external small-power solid-state laser, will be affected by the electron charges of the diode within the waveguide. In our device the dimension of the diode is only about 1 micron squared, and its surface will be functionalised with antibody-like or nucleic acid probes for cytokines/chemokines or their mRNA. An applied electric field will align the diode's resonances with the ones of the waveguide, leaving full transmission of the laser light. By the material's Stark effect, any difference in the electric field, induced by the captured biomarkers molecules, would strongly change the transmission across the waveguide.

Start date of activity

15/09/2021

Keywords

semiconductors, polaritons, waveguide

Last update: 29/03/2024