Lab-on-chip based optical biosensors for the application of dental fluorosis

Optical biosensors are powerful detection and analysis tool that has vast applications in biomedical research, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, environmental monitoring, and the battlefield. Biosensors consist of a biological entity that can be an enzyme, antibody, or nucleic acid that interacts with an analyte and produces the signal that is measured electronically. A variety of substances including nucleic acids, proteins (particularly antibodies and enzymes), lectins (plant proteins that bind sugar moieties) and complex materials (organelles, tissue slices, microorganism), can be used as the biological components. Fluoride content in drinkable groundwater directly affects the quality of drinking water. In this paper we have demonstrated a 2-dimensional photonic crystal based biosensor with line defect which can detect different fluorides in water. Simulation and analysis has been done for calcium fluoride, cesium fluoride, potassium fluoride, lithium fluoride and strontium fluoride and peak has been observed. One such major detection is to detect dental fluorosis caused by the fluorides present in water. Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method has been used for the analysis. MEEP is Maxwell's Electromagnetic Equation Propagation simulation tool. The application of FDTD method is computation of transmission spectrum. MEEP is simulation package for the computation of transmission/reflection spectra, field patterns, resonant modes & frequencies in dielectric structures.