Fluoranthene and Pyrene (PAHs) airborne particles are well known for their mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Manipulation of such nanoparticles below 100 nm makes it challenging due to their low polarizability and dielectric properties. Current optical nano-tweezer designs such as trench, slot and Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguides (HPWG) provides a strong gradient force for trapping, but they often have ≤ 50 nm gaps and have very low fabrication tolerances. In this work, we show the modeling of optical forces and sensitivity of different waveguide structures to sense large numbers of particles to monitor the Air Quality Index (AQI). To increase the trapping gaps and sensitivity in HPWG, we have designed them to use radiation modes of the dielectric waveguides. We call this phenomenon a “mode-lift”. Here we present the numerical and experimental results of industrially compatible integrated photonic sensors such as strip, slot, subwavelength grating (SWG) and HPWG used for measuring AQI.
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