Photonic crystal laser sources for chemical detection

We have realized photonic crystal lasers that permit the introduction of analyte within the peak of the optical field of the lasing mode. We have explored the design compromises for developing such sensitive low-threshold spectroscopy sources, and demonstrate the operation of photonic crystal lasers in different ambient organic solutions. We show that nanocavity lasers can be used to perform spectroscopic tests on femtoliter volumes of analyte, and propose to use these lasers for high-resolution spectroscopy with single-molecule sensitivity. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.