Using Nanophotonics Simulations to Develop Effective Photonic Crystal Biosensors Mindy Lee, a graduate student in Prof. Philippe Fauchet's group at the University of Rochester, has been using the CNF cluster to design unique biosensing photonic crystals.  Simulations were performed using the MIT Finite Difference Time Domain package, MEEP.  The cavities of the photonic crystal are coated with probe molecules that bind to specific proteins or molecules.  When proteins or molecules bind to the surface of the photonic crystal cavities causes, it causes a red-shift of transmission resonances in the photonic crystal which can be detected.  Based on the simulations, Mindy also fabricated the device at the CNF and showed that it could detect a molecular monolayer with a total mass of 2.5 femto-grams.    a] General schematic of the photonic crystal designed for biomolecular detection. [b] Scanning microscope image of the photonic crystal fabricated at the Cornell Nanoscale Facility. [c] Calculated field intensity in the photonic crystal microcavity (scales are in micro-meters) done using MEEP on the CNF Cluster. M. R. Lee and P. M. Fauchet, "Two-dimensional silicon photonic crystal based biosensing platform for protein detection", Optics Express, 15, 4530 (2007)

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