CN115873932A

CN115873932A - Plasmon optical enhancement chip system and application thereof

Info

Publication number: CN115873932A
Application number: CN202110927906.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 请求不公布姓名
Original assignee: Shanghai Jinguan Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Jinguan Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-11
Filing date: 2021-08-11
Publication date: 2023-03-31

Abstract

The invention provides a plasmon optical enhancement chip system and application thereof, wherein the system comprises a nanopore chip, an optical chip group and an image sensor chip, wherein at least one reaction unit is arranged in the nanopore chip, the reaction unit comprises an excitation light coupling grating and a microcavity, and the bottom surface of the microcavity is provided with a nano opening; the optical chipset comprises a first integrated optical chip, a relay optical chip and a second integrated optical chip which are sequentially stacked from bottom to top so as to form at least one optical unit, and the optical unit is used for irradiating excitation light on the excitation light coupling grating, receiving an excited optical signal at the nanometer opening, and sequentially collimating, converging, collecting, processing and outputting the optical signal; the image sensor chip comprises at least one photoelectric conversion unit. The invention utilizes the amplification effect of plasmon enhanced electric field to efficiently excite molecules at the opening of the microcavity nanometer, has ultrahigh sensitive detection capability, can realize ultrahigh sensitive optical detection of the lowest single molecule, and can be applied to the fields of single molecule detection and DNA/RNA sequencing.

Description

Plasmon optical enhancement chip system and application thereof

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of biochips, and relates to a plasmon optical enhancement chip system and application thereof.

Background

The biochip has wide application, wide application in life science research and practice, medical research and clinic, drug design, environmental protection, agriculture, military and other fields, and wide economic, social and scientific research prospects. How to improve the detection sensitivity of the biochip becomes an important technical problem to be solved urgently by those skilled in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, the present invention aims to provide a plasmon optical enhancement chip system and application thereof, which are used to solve the problem of low detection sensitivity of the biochip in the prior art.

To achieve the above and other related objects, the present invention provides a plasmon optical enhancement chip system, comprising:

the nanopore chip comprises a nanopore chip body and a metal film, wherein at least one reaction unit is arranged in the nanopore chip body and comprises an excitation optical coupling grating and a microcavity which are arranged at intervals in the horizontal direction, the microcavity is opened from the top surface of the nanopore chip body and extends to the bottom surface of the nanopore chip body to form a nano opening, and the metal film is positioned on the upper surface of the nanopore chip body and covers the surface of the excitation optical coupling grating and the surface of the microcavity;

the optical chipset is positioned above the nanopore chip and comprises a first integrated optical chip, a relay optical chip and a second integrated optical chip which are sequentially stacked from bottom to top so as to form at least one optical unit, the optical unit is used for irradiating excitation light on the excitation light coupling grating, receiving the excited optical signals at the nanopore, sequentially collimating and converging the optical signals, collecting the converged optical signals, processing the converged optical signals and outputting the processed optical signals;

the image sensor chip is positioned above the optical chip set and comprises at least one photoelectric conversion unit which is used for receiving the optical signal output by the optical chip set and converting the optical signal into an electric signal.

Optionally, the relay optical chip includes at least one lens group, where the lens group includes a first lens and a second lens that are disposed at an interval in a vertical direction, the first lens is configured to collimate the optical signal excited at the nano-opening, and the second lens is configured to converge the optical signal collimated by the first lens to the second integrated optical chip.

Optionally, the first lens includes a microlens or a fresnel lens, and the second lens includes a microlens or a fresnel lens.

Optionally, the excitation light coupling grating comprises a bragg mirror.

Optionally, the reaction unit further includes a reflection structure disposed at an interval from the microcavity, and the microcavity is located between the excitation light coupling grating and the reflection structure.

Optionally, the reflective structure comprises a bragg mirror.

Optionally, the opening area of the microcavity is gradually reduced from top to bottom.

Optionally, the shape of the nano-opening comprises one of a rectangle, a square, and a circle.

Optionally, the optical unit includes a single-mode waveguide and a focusing grating coupler located in the first integrated optical chip, and includes a collection grating coupler, a planar waveguide, a multi-mode waveguide and a static interferometer located in the second integrated optical chip, the single-mode waveguide is configured to transmit excitation light to the focusing grating coupler, the focusing grating coupler is configured to focus and project the excitation light to the excitation light coupling grating in a downward direction, the collection grating coupler is configured to collect optical signals collected by the relay optical chip and transmit the optical signals to the static interferometer through the planar waveguide and the multi-mode waveguide in sequence, and the static interferometer is configured to generate interference signals and project the interference signals into the image sensor chip.

Optionally, the optical unit further includes a microring resonator structure located in the second integrated optical chip, and the microring resonator structure is disposed beside the multimode waveguide to filter the excitation light.

Optionally, the micro-ring resonator structure includes a ring waveguide, a strip waveguide, and a metal block, where the ring waveguide is located between the multimode waveguide and the strip waveguide, and the metal block is connected to an output end of the strip waveguide.

Optionally, the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system further includes a laser and an optical fiber, and the first integrated optical chip is connected to the laser through the optical fiber.

Optionally, the excitation light generated by the laser enters the first integrated optical chip through the optical fiber in an end-face coupling manner or a grating coupling manner.

Optionally, the plasmon optical enhancement chip system includes a plurality of the reaction units, a plurality of the optical units, and a plurality of the photoelectric conversion units to form a plurality of detection units, and one of the detection units includes one of the reaction units, one of the optical units, and one of the photoelectric conversion units.

Optionally, the first integrated optical chip further comprises a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler for splitting the excitation light in the first integrated optical chip into multiple beams to be input to different optical units.

The invention also provides an application of the plasmon optical enhancement chip system, which utilizes the plasmon optical enhancement chip system to detect the optical signal of the molecule.

Optionally, an optical signal of single molecule sensitivity is obtained.

Optionally, the optical signal comprises at least one of a spectral signal and a fluorescent signal.

Optionally, DNA sequencing or RNA sequencing is performed using the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system.

As described above, the plasmon optical enhancement chip system has ultrahigh sensitive detection capability, and can realize ultrahigh sensitive optical detection of the lowest single molecule. The principle is that molecules in the optical enhancement antenna structure are efficiently excited by utilizing the amplification effect of a plasmon enhancement electric field, so that optical signals with single-molecule sensitivity are obtained, wherein the optical signals comprise spectral signals and/or fluorescence. The plasmon optical enhancement chip system can be applied to the fields of single molecule detection and DNA/RNA sequencing.

Drawings

FIG. 1a shows an architecture and schematic diagram of a plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of the present invention.

FIG. 1b is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial top view of the nanopore chip.

FIG. 3 is another partial top view of the nanopore chip.

FIG. 4 shows a working schematic diagram of the nanopore chip.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of the end-coupling mode.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of the grating coupling method.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a rectangular grating as the grating structure in the coupling grating.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a sector grating as the grating structure in the coupling grating.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a sub-wavelength grating for use in a grating structure in a coupling grating.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the collection grating coupler in a semi-elliptical shape.

Figure 11 shows a schematic view of the collection grating coupler in a semi-circular shape.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic diagram of a microring resonator structure.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a chip spectrometer formed by packaging a static interferometer and an image sensor chip.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a multi-array format of the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a multimode interference coupler structure.

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler structure.

Fig. 17 shows a schematic structure of a second static interferometer.

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a third static interferometer.

Fig. 19 is a schematic diagram of a fourth static interferometer.

Fig. 20 is a schematic structural view of a fifth type of static interferometer.

Description of the element reference

1. Nanopore chip

101. Nanopore chip body

102. Metal film

103. Excitation light coupling grating

104. Micro-cavity

105. Nano opening

106. Reflection structure

2a first integrated optical chip

2b relay optical chip

2c second integrated optical chip

201. Substrate

202. Optical waveguide

203. Grating structure

204. Waveguide

204a planar waveguide

204b single mode waveguide

205. Single mode waveguide

206. Focusing grating coupler

207. Collection grating coupler

208. Planar waveguide

209. Multimode waveguide

210. Static interferometer

210a multimode interference coupler structure

210b grating structure

210c multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler structure

210d interferometer unit structure

210e multimode waveguide

210f reflecting mirror

210g multimode interference coupler

210h loop waveguide

210i incident waveguide

210j input coupler

210k array waveguide

210l output coupler

210m exit waveguide

210n microlens array

211. Micro-ring resonator structure

211a ring waveguide

211b strip waveguide

211c Metal Block

212. Multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler

213. First lens

214. Second lens

3. Image sensor chip

4. Laser device

5. Optical fiber

501. Single mode optical fiber

6. Chip type spectrometer

7. Molecule

8. Data processing apparatus

M surface plasmon

Detailed Description

The following embodiments of the present invention are provided by way of specific examples, and other advantages and effects of the present invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein. The invention is capable of other and different embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways, and its several details are capable of modification in various respects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Please refer to fig. 1a to fig. 20. It should be noted that the drawings provided in this embodiment are only for schematically illustrating the basic idea of the present invention, and the components related to the present invention are only shown in the drawings and not drawn according to the number, shape and size of the components in actual implementation, and the form, quantity and proportion of each component in actual implementation may be arbitrarily changed, and the component layout may be more complicated.

The invention provides a plasmon optical enhancement chip system, please refer to fig. 1a, which shows a framework and a schematic diagram of the plasmon optical enhancement chip system, and includes a nanopore chip 1, an optical chipset, and an image sensor chip 3, wherein the nanopore chip 1 includes a nanopore chip body 101 and a metal film 102, at least one reaction unit is disposed in the nanopore chip body 101, the reaction unit includes an excitation optical coupling grating 103 and a microcavity 104 disposed at intervals in a horizontal direction, the microcavity 104 is opened from a top surface of the nanopore chip body 101 and extends to a bottom surface of the nanopore chip body 101 to form a nanopore 105, and the metal film 102 is disposed on an upper surface of the nanopore chip body 101 and covers a surface of the bragg reflector 103 and a surface of the microcavity 104; the optical chipset is located above the nanopore chip 1 and comprises a first integrated optical chip 2a, a relay optical chip 2b and a second integrated optical chip 2c which are sequentially stacked from bottom to top, wherein the first integrated optical chip 2a, the relay optical chip 2b and the second integrated optical chip 2c form at least one optical unit which is used for irradiating excitation light on the excitation light coupling grating 103, receiving optical signals excited at the nano opening 105, sequentially collimating and converging the optical signals, collecting converged optical signals, processing the converged optical signals and outputting the optical signals; the image sensor chip 3 is located above the optical chip set, and the image sensor chip 3 includes at least one photoelectric conversion unit for receiving an optical signal output by the optical chip set and converting the optical signal into an electrical signal.

As an example, the image sensor chip 3 is connected to a data processing device 8.

By way of example, the nanopore chip body 101 may be made of a rigid material, such as silicon, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, aluminum nitride, hafnium oxide, glass, or other suitable material, or a flexible material, such as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), or other suitable material. The metal film 102 includes at least one of a gold film, a silver film, a copper film, and a platinum film.

As an example, the opening area of the microcavity 104 is gradually reduced from top to bottom, and the size of the nano-opening 105 at the bottom of the microcavity 104 is on the order of nanometers (e.g., 0.1-1000 nm) in at least one dimension.

As an example, the excitation optical coupling grating 103 includes a bragg mirror including a plurality of grating grooves formed in the nanopore chip body 101, the grating grooves opening from a top surface of the nanopore chip body 101 and extending in a direction of a bottom surface of the nanopore chip body 101, but not penetrating through the bottom surface of the nanopore chip body 101.

As an example, the reaction unit further includes a reflective structure 106 spaced apart from the microcavity 104, and the microcavity 104 is located between the excitation light coupling grating 103 and the reflective structure 106. The reflective structure 106 is used to reflect the propagating plasmonic light waves back, reducing losses. In this embodiment, the reflective structure 106 includes a bragg mirror.

For example, referring to fig. 2, a partial top view of the nanopore chip 1 is shown, wherein the nano-opening 105 is in the form of a nano-slit. Referring to fig. 3, another partial top view of the nanopore chip 1 is shown, wherein the nano-opening 105 is in a nanopore shape. It should be noted that the shape of the nano-opening 105 may be adjusted as needed, including but not limited to one of a rectangle, a square and a circle, and the arrangement rule of the plurality of grating grooves of the bragg reflector 103 may also be adjusted as needed, which is not limited to the configuration shown in fig. 2 and 3.

Referring to fig. 4, it is shown as a working schematic diagram of the nanopore chip 1, wherein an excitation light (as shown by a plurality of parallel arranged solid arrows in the figure) is irradiated onto the excitation light coupling grating 103, an incident photon of the excitation light interacts with a free electron on the surface of the metal film 102 to generate a surface plasmon resonance (surface plasmon M is shown in the figure), and a surface plasmon enhancement electric field is generated, which can propagate on the surface of the chip, when propagating to the position of the nano-aperture 105 at the bottom of the microcavity 104, a stronger antenna enhancement effect is generated, and a highly localized plasmon enhancement electric field is generated (in fig. 4, a plurality of divergent dotted arrows are used to show a molecular optical signal excited by the plasmon electric field), which is localized at the position of the nano-aperture 105, so as to excite the fluorescence/raman/vibration/rotation/absorption/reflection spectrum of the molecule 7 in the nano-aperture 105, and has a very high efficiency enhancement effect, and can achieve single molecule detection sensitivity (for example, a scattering effect 10 is generated) ⁵ -10 ²⁰ Double enhancement effect). The reflective structure 106 plays a role of reflection, and can reflect part of the optical signal generated in the nano opening 105 back, so as to achieve the effects of reducing the propagation loss of signal photons on the surface and enhancing the intensity of the optical signal. The detected molecules 7 can be transported to the nano-opening 105 through the upper side of the nanopore chip 1, and can also be transported to the nano-opening 105 through the lower side of the nanopore chip 1.

For example, referring back to fig. 1a, the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system further includes a laser 4 and an optical fiber 5, and the first integrated optical chip 2a is connected to the laser 4 through the optical fiber 5. The laser 4 and the optical fiber 5 provide an optical excitation function in a chip as indispensable optical components outside a chip architecture, the laser 4 outputs an excitation light source through the optical fiber 5, and excitation light is coupled into the first integrated optical chip 2a in a grating coupling or end face coupling manner.

As an example, the optical fiber 5 may be a single mode optical fiber or a single mode fiber lens.

As an example, please refer to fig. 5, which is a schematic diagram of an end-face coupling manner, wherein excitation light is directly aligned in a short distance with an end face of an optical waveguide 202 on a substrate 201 of the integrated optical chip 2 through a single-mode optical fiber 501, and light emitted from the single-mode optical fiber 501 can be coupled into the optical waveguide 202 for further transmission.

By way of example, referring to fig. 6, a schematic diagram of a grating coupling manner is shown, in which excitation light is emitted out to the grating structure 203 on the substrate 201 of the first integrated optical chip 2a through a single-mode optical fiber 501, and is coupled into the waveguide 204 by the grating structure 203 for continuous transmission. The central axis of the single mode fiber 501 is deviated from the normal by a preset angle theta.

As an example, please refer to fig. 7 to 9, which show top views of several common coupling gratings, wherein fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram that the grating structure 203 in the coupling grating is a rectangular grating, fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram that the grating structure 203 in the coupling grating is a sector grating, and fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram that the grating structure 203 in the coupling grating is a sub-wavelength grating. In this embodiment, the whole structure of the coupling grating includes the periodic grating structure 203, and a planar waveguide 204a and a single-mode waveguide 204b connected to the output end of the grating structure 203, and excitation light outside the integrated optical chip 2 is coupled into the grating and then continuously transmitted through the single-mode waveguide 204 b.

Referring back to fig. 1a, in the optical chipset, the relay optical chip 2b includes at least one lens assembly as a part of the optical unit, which is beneficial to reduce the size of the coupling grating collected in the second optical integrated chip 2c and reduce the chip manufacturing cost, and the lens assembly has higher collection efficiency, which can improve the collection efficiency of the whole chip structure on the optical signal.

As an example, the lens group includes a first lens 213 and a second lens 214 spaced apart in a vertical direction, the first lens 213 is used for collimating the optical signal excited at the nano-aperture 105, and the second lens 214 is used for converging the optical signal collimated by the first lens 213 to the second integrated optical chip 2c.

As an example, the first lens 213 includes a micro lens or a fresnel lens, and the second lens 214 includes a micro lens or a fresnel lens. In fig. 1a, a microlens is used for the first lens 213 and the second lens 214, the diameter of the microlens may be in the range of 50-5000 μm, preferably 200 μm, and the focal length may be in the range of 0.1-500 μm, preferably 10 μm.

For example, referring to fig. 1b, another architecture and schematic diagram of the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system is shown, where a fresnel lens is used for the first lens 213 and the second lens 214, the diameter of the fresnel lens may be in a range of 50-5000 μm, preferably 200 μm, and the focal length of the fresnel lens may be in a range of 0.1-500 μm, preferably 10 μm.

As an example, the optical unit further includes a single-mode waveguide 205 and a focusing grating coupler 206 located in the first integrated optical chip 2a, and includes a collecting grating coupler 207, a planar waveguide 208, a multi-mode waveguide 209 and a static interferometer 210 located in the second integrated optical chip 2c, the single-mode waveguide 205 is configured to transmit excitation light to the focusing grating coupler 206, the focusing grating coupler 206 is configured to project the excitation light to the excitation light coupling grating 103 in a downward focusing manner, the collecting grating coupler 207 is configured to collect an optical signal collected by the relay optical chip 2b and transmit the optical signal to the static interferometer 210 through the planar waveguide 208 and the multi-mode waveguide 209 in sequence, and the static interferometer 210 is configured to generate an interference signal and project the interference signal into the image sensor chip 3.

Specifically, the focusing grating coupler 206 and the collecting grating coupler 207 realize the control of the propagation direction of the light beam by using the principle of diffraction grating, and realize the effect of optical focusing or optical collecting. In order to increase the excitation or collection efficiency, the overall size of the focusing grating coupler 206 and the collection grating coupler 207 can be made larger, and the size can be controlled in the range of 50-5000 μm.

For example, please refer to fig. 10 and fig. 11, which are schematic diagrams illustrating sequential connection of the collection grating coupler 207, the planar waveguide 208, and the multi-mode waveguide 209, wherein the collection grating coupler 207 may be a semi-elliptical shape as shown in fig. 10, or a semi-circular shape as shown in fig. 11. The shape of the focusing grating coupler 206 is similar and will not be described in detail here.

As an example, the optical unit further includes a micro-ring resonator structure 211 located in the second integrated optical chip 2c, and the micro-ring resonator structure 211 is disposed beside the multimode waveguide 209 to filter the excitation light.

For example, please refer to fig. 12, which is a schematic diagram of the micro-ring resonator structure 211, wherein the micro-ring resonator structure 211 includes a ring waveguide 211a, a strip waveguide 211b, and a metal block 211c, the ring waveguide 211a is located between the multi-mode waveguide 209 and the strip waveguide 211b, and the metal block 211c is connected to an output end of the strip waveguide 211 b. By designing the size of the annular waveguide 211a, the effect of selecting a specific wavelength can be achieved, photons with the selected wavelength are coupled into the annular waveguide 211a through evanescent waves, interference enhancement is generated when the optical path of the photons propagating in the annular waveguide 211a is equal to integral multiple of the wavelength, a whispering gallery mode is formed and stays in the annular waveguide 211a for propagation, the photons in the annular waveguide 211a are coupled out through another shorter strip waveguide 211b, and the photons are absorbed through the metal block 211c, so that the effect of removing the photons with the wavelength from the original input photons is achieved, and the filtering of excitation light of a spectrum signal can be achieved.

For example, please refer to fig. 13, which is a schematic structural diagram of a chip spectrometer 6 formed by packaging the static interferometer 210 and the image sensor chip 3, wherein a coupling end of the static interferometer 210 is a multimode interference coupler structure 210a, a spectrum signal is propagated and coupled into the multimode interference coupler structure 210a through the multimode waveguide 209, and is divided into two parts by the multimode interference coupler structure 210a and then enters two parallel optical waveguides (made of silicon nitride) to continue to propagate forward. The widths of the two optical waveguides are specially designed to be different, so that photons transmitted in the two optical waveguides generate phase difference, and when two optical signals are transmitted in the waveguides, evanescent fields generated by total internal reflection are overlapped between the two parallel waveguides to generate interference signals. The periodic grating structure 210b is prepared in the area between the two waveguides, interference signals are diffracted upwards to the image sensor chip 3, the image sensor chip 3 can be a linear or rectangular CCD array and is used for receiving the interference signals to obtain interference patterns, and the interference patterns are subjected to Fourier transform processing to obtain spectral information.

For example, referring to fig. 14, a schematic diagram of a multi-array format of the plasmon optical enhancement chip system is shown, which includes a plurality of the reaction units, a plurality of the optical units, and a plurality of the photoelectric conversion units to form a plurality of detection units, where one of the detection units includes one of the reaction units, one of the optical units, and one of the photoelectric conversion units. Wherein the first integrated optical chip 2a further comprises a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler 212, and the multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler 212 is used for dividing the excitation light in the first integrated optical chip 2a into a plurality of beams to be input to different optical units. The image sensor chip 3 is connected to a data processing device 8.

For example, referring to fig. 15, a schematic diagram of a multimode interference coupler structure is shown, the multimode interference coupler structure is a micro-nano optical device commonly used in the field of integrated optics, in which light waves can propagate, and separates the light waves into two beams to propagate out in a controllable manner, and an ideal 1 × 2 multimode interference coupler structure is a 50/50 beam splitter, which separates the incoming light waves out according to the ratio of 50% to 50%. Referring to fig. 16, a schematic diagram of a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler structure is shown, according to a binary division, the multi-stage MMI structure can divide the light wave into a plurality of light beams with equal intensity, and then the light wave is transmitted in the waveguide.

The working principle of the plasmon optical enhancement chip system is as follows: the laser 4 outputs an excitation light source through the optical fiber 5, the excitation light is coupled into the multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler 212 in the first integrated optical chip 2a in a grating coupling or end-face coupling manner, the multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler 212 equally divides the excitation light into multiple excitation lights with the same power, the multiple excitation lights are transmitted in the single-mode waveguide 205 (the output structure of the multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler 212 is connected to the single-mode waveguide 205), the multiple excitation lights which are arranged in parallel are transmitted forward in the single-mode waveguide 205 to the diffractive focusing grating coupler 206, which is used as an excitation grating to focus and project the excitation light to the excitation light coupling grating 103 in a downward direction, incident photons of the excitation light generate a surface plasmon enhancement electric field on the surface of the excitation light coupling grating 103, and propagate to the nano opening 105 at the bottom of the microcavity 104 to generate a highly local plasmon resonance enhancement electric field, so as to excite an optical signal of the molecule 7 in the nano opening 105. The excited optical signal is scattered upwards, collected and collimated by the first lens 213, and the optical signal collimated by the first lens 213 is further collected and converged to the collection grating coupler 207 by the second lens 214, and then converged into the multimode waveguide 209 through the planar waveguide 208, and transmitted into the static interferometer 210, and the excitation light can be filtered by the microring resonator structure 211 beside the multimode waveguide 209. The optical signal with the excitation light filtered out enters the static interferometer 210, photons with different wavelengths interfere in the static interferometer 210 and are projected upwards by the scattering grating in the static interferometer 210 to enter the image sensor chip 3 to form an interference pattern, and the interference pattern is subjected to fourier transform to obtain spectral information of the optical signal.

It is noted that the static interferometer 210 is not limited to the type shown in fig. 1, 13, 14, but may also be of the type presented in any of fig. 17 to 20, for example.

Specifically, the static interferometer shown in fig. 17 includes a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler structure 210c and a plurality of interferometer unit structures 210d, where the interferometer unit structure 210d includes a fabry-perot interference cavity, the lengths of the fabry-perot interference cavities of the interferometer unit structures 210d are different, and the length difference is designed by a gradient, so that a plurality of groups of interference patterns with different fringe intervals and different peak intensities can be finally collected, and an accurate spectrum can be analyzed. In the chip structure, the larger the number of interferometer unit structures, the larger the spectral range that can be resolved.

Specifically, the static interferometer shown in fig. 18 includes a multimode waveguide 210e and a reflector 210f disposed at the end of the multimode waveguide 210e, a spectrum signal propagates forward in the multimode waveguide 210e to the reflector 210f and is reflected back, standing wave interference (illustrated by a plurality of oblong shapes) occurs between an incident signal photon and a reflected signal photon at the center of the multimode waveguide 210e, an interference pattern can be captured by using a linear image sensor chip, and spectrum information is obtained after fourier transform.

Specifically, the static interferometer shown in fig. 19 includes a multimode interference coupler 210g and a loop waveguide 210h, a spectrum signal is transmitted to the multimode interference coupler 210g in the multimode waveguide, the multimode interference coupler 210g divides incident signal photons into two beams, the two beams enter the loop waveguide 210h, the two beams of signal photons finally meet at the center of the loop waveguide 210h to generate standing wave interference (shown by a plurality of oblong shapes), an interference pattern can be shot by using a linear image sensor chip, and spectrum information is obtained after fourier transform.

Specifically, the static interferometer shown in fig. 20 employs an Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG), signal photons enter the input coupler 210j from the input Waveguide 210i, the input coupler 210j is configured as a planar Waveguide, the signal photons are diffracted at an interface between the input coupler 210j and the input Waveguide 210i, and the intensity enters the Arrayed Waveguide 210k in a gaussian distribution in a direction perpendicular to the propagation direction. The interface between the arrayed waveguide 210k and the input coupler 210j is curved to ensure that the diffracted light at each position reaches the arrayed waveguide 21 with the same phase0k end face. The arrayed waveguide 210k is composed of a series of similarly shaped strip waveguides, adjacent waveguides have the same length difference, and the total length of each waveguide increases/decreases in a gradient manner throughout the array. Due to the length difference, the lights with different wavelengths have the same phase difference after propagating in the arrayed waveguide 210 k. The signal photons enter the output coupler 210l from the arrayed waveguide 210k, and the output coupler 210l is also a planar waveguide structure, and both end faces of the output coupler are curved surfaces, and the two curved surfaces are on the same circumference. The other end of the output coupler 210l is connected to the exit waveguide 210m. Due to the phase difference, signal photons of different wavelengths are diffracted out of the planar waveguide of the output coupler 210l and focused into different exit waveguides 210m, achieving the effect of wavelength separation (n wavelengths: λ are illustrated in the figure) ₁ ～λ _n ). The exit waveguide 210m focuses the signal photons with the separated wavelengths on the linear image sensor chip 3 through the microlens array 210n to obtain interference patterns, and spectral information is obtained after inverse fourier transform.

Of course, in other embodiments, the static interferometer 210 may be of other suitable types, and the scope of the present invention should not be limited to this type.

The plasmon optical enhancement chip system can be applied to detecting optical signals of molecules and can realize ultra-high-sensitivity optical detection of the lowest single molecule. The optical signal includes at least one of a spectral signal and a fluorescent signal. Further, the plasmon optical enhancement chip system can be used for DNA sequencing or RNA sequencing.

It should be noted that the image sensor 3 may include array or linear optical multiplier tubes (PMT), single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPAD), charge Coupled Device (CCD), silicon photo multiplier tubes (SiPM), or may include single PMT, SPAD, CCD, siPM or photodiode. In the case of a single PMT, SPAD, CCD, siPM, or photodiode, the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of the present invention can be used to detect the fluorescence signal intensity of a single molecule.

In conclusion, the plasmon optical enhancement chip system has ultrahigh sensitive detection capability, and can realize ultrahigh sensitive optical detection of the lowest single molecule. The principle is that molecules in the optical enhancement antenna structure are efficiently excited by utilizing the amplification effect of a plasmon enhancement electric field, so that optical signals with single-molecule sensitivity are obtained, wherein the optical signals comprise spectral signals and/or fluorescence. The plasmon optical enhancement chip system can be applied to the fields of single molecule detection and DNA/RNA sequencing. Therefore, the invention effectively overcomes various defects in the prior art and has high industrial utilization value.

The foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and utilities of the present invention and are not intended to limit the invention. Those skilled in the art can modify or change the above-described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended that all equivalent modifications or changes which may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A plasmonic optical enhancement chip system, comprising:

2. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the relay optical chip comprises at least one lens group, the lens group comprises a first lens and a second lens which are arranged at intervals in the vertical direction, the first lens is used for collimating the optical signals excited at the nanometer opening, and the second lens is used for converging the optical signals collimated by the first lens to the second integrated optical chip.

3. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 2, wherein: the first lens comprises a micro lens or a Fresnel lens, and the second lens comprises a micro lens or a Fresnel lens.

4. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the excitation light coupling grating includes a bragg mirror.

5. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the reaction unit further comprises a reflection structure arranged at an interval with the microcavity, and the microcavity is positioned between the excitation light coupling grating and the reflection structure.

6. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 5, wherein: the reflective structure includes a bragg mirror.

7. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the opening area of the micro-cavity is gradually reduced from top to bottom.

8. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the shape of the nano opening comprises one of a rectangle, a square and a circle.

9. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the optical unit comprises a single-mode waveguide and a focusing grating coupler which are positioned in the first integrated optical chip, and comprises a collecting grating coupler, a planar waveguide, a multi-mode waveguide and a static interferometer which are positioned in the second integrated optical chip, wherein the single-mode waveguide is used for transmitting excitation light to the focusing grating coupler, the focusing grating coupler is used for focusing and projecting the excitation light to the excitation light coupling grating downwards, the collecting grating coupler is used for collecting optical signals converged by the relay optical chip and transmitting the optical signals to the static interferometer through the planar waveguide and the multi-mode waveguide in sequence, and the static interferometer is used for generating interference signals and projecting the interference signals into the image sensor chip.

10. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 9, wherein: the optical unit further comprises a micro-ring resonator structure located in the second integrated optical chip, and the micro-ring resonator structure is arranged beside the multimode waveguide to filter exciting light.

11. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 10, wherein: the micro-ring resonator structure comprises a ring waveguide, a strip waveguide and a metal block, wherein the ring waveguide is positioned between the multimode waveguide and the strip waveguide, and the metal block is connected to the output end of the strip waveguide.

12. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the plasmon optical enhancement chip system further comprises a laser and an optical fiber, and the first integrated optical chip is connected with the laser through the optical fiber.

13. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 12, wherein: and excitation light generated by the laser enters the first integrated optical chip through the optical fiber in an end-face coupling mode or a grating coupling mode.

14. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 1, wherein: the plasmon optical enhancement chip system comprises a plurality of reaction units, a plurality of optical units and a plurality of photoelectric conversion units to form a plurality of detection units, wherein each detection unit comprises one reaction unit, one optical unit and one photoelectric conversion unit.

15. The plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of claim 14, wherein: the first integrated optical chip further includes a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler for splitting excitation light in the first integrated optical chip into multiple beams for input to different ones of the optical units.

16. Use of a plasmonic optical enhancement chip system, characterized by: detecting an optical signal of a molecule using the plasmonic optical enhancement chip system of any of claims 1-15.

17. Use of a plasmonic optical enhancement chip system according to claim 16, wherein: an optical signal of single molecule sensitivity is obtained.

18. Use of a plasmonic optical enhancement chip system according to claim 16, wherein: the optical signal includes at least one of a spectral signal and a fluorescent signal.

19. Use of a plasmonic optical enhancement chip system according to claim 14, wherein: and performing DNA sequencing or RNA sequencing by using the plasmon optical enhancement chip system.