Optical sensors

Optical sensor development has been pursued over past 25 years, which has also seen development of novel chemistries, materials, sensor designs and optical instrumentation. In addition, novel signal and data processing techniques have been adopted in the sensor development. New techniques and materials in chemical and biological sensing have set further stages of advanced research. One of the most recent technological advances in this area has been the development of Optical Nanosensors, which are sensors with dimensions on the nanometer scale. Nanosensors of various types (e.g. optical, electrochemical) have been published in the literature over the past decade. Optical nanosensors, like the larger and macro scale sensors, can be either chemical or biological, depending on the type of probe used. Both types of sensors have been studied to provide a reliable method of monitoring various chemicals in microscopic environments and have been used to detect molecules within single cells. The field of nanosensing is relatively new and reports in the literature presenting any problems associated with such a scale of analysis are sparse. This paper will briefly review some of the current developments in the field of optical nanosensors. © 2005 IEEE.