Bragg surface wave device based on porous silicon and its application for sensing

Results concerning a Bragg surface wave device based on porous silicon and intended for sensing application are reported. Existence of optical surface waves on Bragg structures is experimentally shown. Such device is expected to be very sensitive to the grafting of biological molecules. The authors demonstrate this sensing effect by grafting of amine chemical groups. The optical characterization using m-line spectroscopy shows that the increase of the coupling angle is about 20 degrees after the amine grafting. The authors show that porosity is essential for reaching this high sensitivity. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.