DNA detection using molecular beacon in soft-glass microstructured optical fibers

Abstract

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, the detection of specific strands of DNA based on a soft-glass microstructured optical fiber (MOF) platform loaded with molecular beacons (MBs). This detection scheme brings together the intrinsic advantage of MOF for low-volume sensing with a label-free approach, and is highly specific in identifying complementary (cDNA) from non-complementary (nDNA) sequences at room temperature. The detection limit of the current sensing scheme is demonstrated to be improvable via coupling to different sets of guided core modes by means of longitudinal offset in coupling light from the source to the fiber.