Cavity-enhanced optical methods for online microfluidic analysis

CATEGORY: SPECTROSCOPY
Chemical Physics Letters, Available online 16 October 2012, In Press, Corrected Proof
Cavity-enhanced optical methods for online microfluidic analysis
Cathy M. Rushwortha,
Joanna Davies b, João T. Cabral b, Philip R. Dolan c, Jason M. Smith c, Claire Vallance a
a Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Chemistry Research Laboratory, 12 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK
b Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK
c Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
Abstract
Absorption spectroscopy is a promising detection technique for microfluidic applications, since it is universal, label-free, and rapid.  However, the short optical pathlength through a microfluidic channel often imposes unacceptable limits on detection sensitivity.
Authors review a variety of strategies for increasing the pathlength and thereby improving the detection sensitivity of absorption measurements, covering extended-pathlength single-pass methods, multi-pass measurements, and finally a range of cavity-enhanced methods.  They conclude that cavity-enhanced approaches show considerable promise for applications in which a high detection sensitivity is required within a small probed volume.
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