Flame hydrolysis deposition (FHD) of glasses has previously found applications in the telecommunications industry. This paper shows how the technology can be used to deposit silica with different refractive indices and thereby produce low-loss planar waveguides for use in analytical applications. We also show that the glasses can be patterned using a new reactive ion etch and sealed using a modification of anodic bonding, such that the resulting microstructures can be readily incorporated within a lithographically defined "chip", integrating both optical and fluidic circuitry on the same device. In the example described in this paper, waveguides, analytical microtiter chambers and fluidic capillary channels, with the necessary high aspect ratio features (and with depths up to 40 microm) were all produced in glass, using the appropriate deposition and etching technologies. The performance of the chip was assessed in the framework of a low-volume fluorescence assay, using waveguides to address miniaturized microtiter chambers with volumes of 230 and 570 pL. Devices featuring different optical detection configurations, including both in-line and orthogonal waveguide geometries, were fabricated. In the optimal configuration, the experimental detection limit was determined as ca. 20 pM (equivalent to 10 zmol) of a cyanine fluorophore, Cy5. The applicability of the device as a biochip platform was further illustrated by analytical measurements on fluorescently labeled oligodeoxynucleotides.

A novel real-time optical fibered dosimetry system based on optically stirn ulated luminescence (OSL) of SrS:Ce,Sm phosphor was developed and is presented. The advantages of this system are the combination of OSL and optical fibers, immediate readout, simplicity of use, low cost, reliability, flexibility, and robustness. Experimental results show an excellent linearity with the dose (0.01 to 6 Gy), repeatability better than 2%, radiation sensitivity up to 80 mV.cGy-l and accuracy since error on dose is less than 5%. The applications targeted are the measurement of the dose delivered during a treatment in radiation therapy and the monitoring of the dose or dose-rate around or in nuclear reactor and accelerator facilities in high energy physics. Further experiments are still to be conducted in order to fully characterize the system and evaluate the feasibility of each application mentioned.