Reflector-Less Shallow-Tapered Optical Fiber Biosensors for Rapid Detection of Cancer Biomarkers

Shaimerdenova M. Ayupova T. Ashikbayeva Z. Bekmurzayeva A. Blanc W. Tosi D.
1 July 2023 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

Journal of Lightwave Technology
2023 #41 Issue 13 4114 - 4122 pp.

Reflector-less biosensors based on optical fibers enable the detection of the refractive index (RI) variations, in reflection mode, without the need for any reflective element (such as a grating or an interferometer). The sensing system works by interrogating the wavelength shift occurring in the Rayleigh scattering signal at each location of a thinned fiber through an optical backscatter reflectometer (OBR); a high-scattering fiber is required in order to compensate for the propagation losses. The approaches reported so far make use of etched fibers, which are however fragile and require tens of minutes of fabrication, and U-bent fibers which are incompatible with in-situ devices. In this article, we present the working principle and main results of reflector-less biosensors fabricated through shallow tapering; this concept allows the fastest fabrication (∼20 seconds through a CO2 automated laser splicer) reported so far, and allows maintaining a compact and robust form factor as the fiber maintains a diameter >28 μm (>22% of the initial thickness). The fabrication process allows achieving a peak sensitivity up to 1.33 nm/RIU (1.05 nm/RIU average over 5 tapers), using MgO-nanoparticle doped fibers. The tapered biosensors have been functionalized through the silanization method, in order to detect CD44 protein (from 100 fM to 10 nM), a breast cancer biomarker. The results show a successful detection with a low limit of detection (16.4 pM) and high specificity over two controls.

Cancer biomarker detection , optical fiber biosensors , optical fiber sensors , optical fiber taper , reflector-less sensors , refractive index sensors

Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи

Nazarbayev University, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, National Laboratory Astana, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
Université Côte dAzur, Institut de Physique de Nice, CEDEX 2, Nice, 06103, France

Nazarbayev University
Nazarbayev University
Université Côte dAzur

10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель

Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026