Remote non-invasive Fabry-Perot cavity spectroscopy for label-free sensing

Abstract: One way of optically monitoring molecule concentrations is to utilise the high sensitivity of the transmission and reflection rates of Fabry-Perot cavities to changes of their optical properties. Up to now, intrinsic and extrinsic Fabry-Perot cavity sensors have been considered with analytes either being placed inside the resonator or coupled to evanescent fields on the outside. Here we show that Fabry-Perot cavities can also be used to monitor molecule concentrations non-invasively and remotely, since the reflection of light from the target molecules back into the Fabry-Perot cavity adds upwards peaks to the minima of its overall reflection rate. Detecting the amplitude of these peaks reveals information about molecule concentrations. By using an array of optical cavities, a wide range of frequencies can be probed at once and a unique optical fingerprint can be obtained.