THE RESONANT MIRROR - A NOVEL OPTICAL BIOSENSOR FOR DIRECT SENSING OFBIOMOLECULAR INTERACTIONS .1. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION AND ASSOCIATED INSTRUMENTATION

The Resonant Mirror biosensor is a new design of optical sensor, aimed at combining the improved sensitivity of waveguide sensors with the s implicity of fabrication and ease of use associated with surface plasm on sensors. It uses the evanescent wave associated with a dielectric r esonant structure to probe reactions occurring in a sensing layer, dep osited within a few hundred nanometers of the device surface and is ai med at the real time monitoring of biological assays, without use of l abelled molecules. This paper describes the operation of the device an d performance features relevant to its use as a biosensor.