Surface label-free sensing by means of a fluorescent multilayered photonic structure

A fluorescent dielectric multilayer is exploited for label-free sensing in aqueous micro-environment. Fluorescence is laser-excited and collected through prism-coupling to a surface electromagnetic mode, also known as Bloch surface waves (BSW) localized at the interface between the multilayer and the outer aqueous medium. By detecting the spectral changes of the BSW-coupled light emission due to an external perturbation of the refractive index (Δn), a sensitivity of ∼2500 nm/RIU and a limit of detection down to Δn ∼ 3 × 10−6 are obtained.