4.8 Article

1/f-noise-free optical sensing with an integrated heterodyne interferometer

Journal

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22271-4

Keywords

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Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [12041602, 61635001, 11825402, 11654003, 61435001]
  2. National Key R&D Program of China [2016YFA0301302, 2018YFB2200401]
  3. Key R&D Program of Guangdong Province [2018B030329001]
  4. China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2020M680187]
  5. China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents [BX20200017]

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Optical evanescent sensors have proposed a 1/f-noise-free optical sensor through an up-converted detection system, achieving a significant suppression of sampling noise amplitude in a CMOS-compatible heterodyne interferometer. This advancement allows for label-free single-nanoparticle detection down to the attogram level, showing great potential for airborne biosensing and rapid sensing of diverse viruses or molecules.
Optical evanescent sensors can non-invasively detect unlabeled nanoscale objects in real time with unprecedented sensitivity, enabling a variety of advances in fundamental physics and biological applications. However, the intrinsic low-frequency noise therein with an approximately 1/f-shaped spectral density imposes an ultimate detection limit for monitoring many paramount processes, such as antigen-antibody reactions, cell motions and DNA hybridizations. Here, we propose and demonstrate a 1/f-noise-free optical sensor through an up-converted detection system. Experimentally, in a CMOS-compatible heterodyne interferometer, the sampling noise amplitude is suppressed by two orders of magnitude. It pushes the label-free single-nanoparticle detection limit down to the attogram level without exploiting cavity resonances, plasmonic effects, or surface charges on the analytes. Single polystyrene nanobeads and HIV-1 virus-like particles are detected as a proof-of-concept demonstration for airborne biosensing. Based on integrated waveguide arrays, our devices hold great potentials for multiplexed and rapid sensing of diverse viruses or molecules. Suppressing 1/f-shaped low-frequency noise is critical but fundamentally challenging to both electrical and optical transducers. Here, the authors demonstrate a 1/f-noise-free optical sensor with integrated CMOS-compatible heterodyne interferometer and an upconversion amplifying technique, which suppresses the noise by two orders of magnitude.

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