Bacteria Light Sensor
BRUSSELS, Nov. 28, 2016 — 
Photonics21 has announced a new biophotonic light sensor from European group Poseidon (plasmonic based automated lab-on-chip sensor for the rapid in-situ detection of Legionella) that spots Legionella bacteria 240x quicker than current methods.
Poseidon's scanner spots the bacteria in under one hour, a process that normally takes 10 days of cultivation and analysis. Equipped with tiny sensors, the device works by using the photonics technique of surface plasmon resonance (SPR), a procedure that reads information from a refracted laser beam, allowing fast, highly sensitive, inexpensive detection from a small sample without the need for labeling, the process of binding to a protein, in order to be detected.
SPR occurs when polarized beams of light hit a metal film at the interface of two media. A charge density oscillation of free electrons at the metal film occurs, reducing the intensity of reflected light. The scale of the reduction depends on the substance on the metal at the interface. Information gathered from the refracted light can then be analyzed and a pre-programmed pathogen confirmed, resulting in an unambiguous detection of the bacteria in situ.
http://www.photonics21.org
Photonics.com
Nov 2016