UC Santa Cruz

Within this dissertation, several optofluidic devices are presented for applications in atom-optics and on-chip biosensing. Oxide-based optofluidic devices compatible with alkali vapors designed for all-optical atomic cooling and for slow and stopped light based photonic devices are presented. Also presented are polydimethylsiloxane-based optofluidic devices with single virus detection sensitivities. By controlling the liquid flow characteristics through such polydimethylsiloxane optofluidic devices, chip-based detection of single viruses is enhanced using hydrodynamic focusing and velocity multiplexing is demonstrated using a stacked-channel design. Lastly, a novel on-chip distributed feedback dye laser is presented which is fabricated with an integrated fluidic detection channel.