Overview

The Harvard Center for Microfluidic and Plasmonic Systems (MIPS) brings together researchers in microfluidics, nanofabrication, biosensors, plasmon devices, optoelectronics, bottom-up nanofabrication and plasmonic fluorescent sensors.

Recent dramatic advances in surface plasmon (SP) technologies present new opportunities in MEMS/NEMS devices such as microfluidic systems. 

The Harvard MIPS Center has been recently formed with support and funding from industry groups and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). 

The interdisciplinary academic/industrial team will carry out research on a new class of microsystems that they have dubbed MIPS: Microfluidic and Plasmonic Systems.

Surface plasmon (SP) nanostructures enable electromagnetic energy to be concentrated into deep sub-wavelength regions. When SP nanostructures are combined with microfluidic systems for sample delivery, SP nanostructures present opportunities for significant increases in the detection sensitivity of biological molecules at very low concentrations. 

Goals and Projects

The Harvard MIPS Center has the goal of carrying out fundamental research into surface plasmon nanostructure design, fabrication, imaging and integration with microfluidic systems. 

The Harvard MIPS Center has chosen two demonstration vehicles for SP technology. 

>>In the first, SP nanostructures are positioned inside microfluidic channels for fluorescent detection of single molecules of DNA. 

>>In the second, the interaction of poliovirus particles with a cell membrane will be observed by monitoring the changes in transmission of a nanohole array sensor.

Director

Assistant Professor Ken Crozier is the MIPS Director.

Crozier studied Electrical Engineering and Physics at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he received his B. Eng. with First Class Honors (1995) and B.S. (1996). He completed both his M.S.E.E. (1999) and Ph.D. (2003) in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Crozier carried out his doctoral dissertation under Calvin Quate and Gordon Kino. Prior to coming to Harvard, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford with Olav Solgaard. His current research focuses on experimental studies on nanophotonics. In particular, he is exploring near-field optical imaging techniques for spectroscopy with a spatial resolution significantly better than the classical diffraction limit. He is also interested in demonstrating new optical components based on photonic crystals. Crozier has published on microfabrication, scanning probe microscopy, and photonic crystals.