Low-concentration mechanical biosensor based on a photonic crystal nanowire array

The challenge for new biosensors is to achieve detection of biomolecules at low concentrations, which is useful for early-stage disease detection. Nanomechanical biosensors are promising in medical diagnostic applications. For nanomechanical biosensing at low concentrations, a sufficient resonator device surface area is necessary for molecules to bind to. Here we present a low-concentration (500 aM sensitivity) DNA sensor, which uses a novel nanomechanical resonator with ordered vertical nanowire arrays on top of a Si/SiO2 bilayer thin membrane. The high sensitivity is achieved by the strongly enhanced total surface area-to-volume ratio of the resonator (108 m−1) and the state-of-the-art mass-per-area resolution (1.8×10−12 kg m−2). Moreover, the nanowire array forms a photonic crystal that shows strong light trapping and absorption over broad-band optical wavelengths, enabling high-efficiency broad-band opto-thermo-mechanical remote device actuation and biosensing on a chip. This method represents a mass-based platform technology that can sense molecules at low concentrations.