Boston Chapter of the IEEE Photonics Society

Abstract:  Extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) has performance characteristics that make it very appealing to those wishing to develop technology to solve problems in biology and healthcare.  My own odyssey with EOT began in the summer of 2000 when it seemed as if the ability to make subwavelength spots of light might enable the creation of a super-resolution scanning fluorescence microscope that offered a dramatic improvement over NSOM.  As this work progressed we realized that the influence of the dielectric medium in contact with the device on the  transmission spectrum through these subwavelength apertures presented opportunities for new sensing modalities.  In the course of our work on EOT we have pursued the aforementioned microscope, a “next generation” photolithographic stepper targeting the 22nm node of the ITRS, and three kinds of biosensors.  In this talk I will outline the history of our work with an emphasis on the biosensors and their intended uses.

Biography:  Dale Larson is the Director of Biomedical Systems at Draper Laboratory where he is responsible for setting the research agenda and conducts his own work in the area of Nanohole array sensing and laboratory automation.  Before joining Draper in February of 2008 he was the founding Director of the Technology and Engineering Center at Harvard Medical School where the Nanohole array sensing and automation work was initiated.  Mr. Larson has over 28 years of experience in the development of analytical and clinical instrumentation in both academia and in industry.

Mr. Larson received his B.S. from the University of Virginia in 1980 and his M.S. from Stanford University in 1981.