Optical biosensor based on whispering gallery mode excitations in clusters of microparticles

A new concept for an optical biosensor based on whispering gallery mode (WGM) excitations in clusters of spherical microresonators is presented. Clusters of microresonators offer the advantage to exhibit specific WGM spectra that can be considered as their fingerprint. Therefore, individual clusters can be traced throughout an experiment even without knowledge of their precise positions. Polyelectrolyte adsorption onto clusters of 10 mu m polystyrene spheres is monitored in situ. It is shown that the WGMs shift to the same amount as those of a single microresonator and thus sensitivity does not depend on the number of microresonators present in the cluster. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.