Better microring sensors for optical applications

Nanowerk  May 10, 2019 The ability to detect small nano-particles and eventually single molecules remains a challenge. Current attempts focus on microring or microtoroid resonators which enhance the interaction between light and the molecule to be detected. The sensitivity of these devices, however, is limited by their fundamental physics. A team of researchers in the US (Michigan Technological University, University of Central Florida, Pennsylvania State University) propose a type of sensor based on the new notion of exceptional surfaces: surfaces that consist of exceptional points. However, the enhanced sensitivity of exceptional point-based sensors is very sensitive to unavoidable fabrication errors […]