Optical sensing with all-dielectric photonic crystals

Dielectric multilayered structures are introduced here as building blocks of disposable chips for sensing applications. Some experimental configurations are illustrated wherein flat or patterned multilayers are employed for sensing in either label-free, spectroscopic or fluorescence operational modes. In particular, the possibility to enhance and control the emission from fluorescence markers on the chip surface is demonstrated to improve the detection limit in bio-assays for cancer diagnostics.