Polymeric waveguides for orthogonal near surface fluorescent excitation

Abstract
The objective of this effort was to fabricate a waveguide integrated in a polymer microfluidic chip in order to deliver excitation light to fluorescent probes contained in a fluidic channel. Instead of exciting the volume at a certain point along a fluidic channel, the goal herein was to excite all the probes contained along the length of the fluidic channel. An air-waveguide structure was designed and integrated into a polymer microfluidic chip. Fabrication of the microfluidic chip was carried out by double-sided hot embossing of poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) in sheet form. The efficacy of the waveguide was evaluated by coupling light from a laser into it and testing the fluorescence intensity from dye contained in the microfluidic channel. The results demonstrate illumination of the entire length of the microfluidic channel with excitation wavelength light from the waveguide. Details of the design, fabrication process and initial experimental results are presented in the course of this paper.

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