Interest in finding reliable and highly sensitive sensors for water quality control has grown recently empowered by the explosion of cutting-edge technologies such as nanotechnologies, optoelectronics, and computing, on the one hand, and by the increasing need for more secure control of water quality, on the other. This book highlights a number of modern topics in the field of biosensing, particularly water sensing, in which the signal is enhanced. It starts with surface-enhanced spectroscopies using plasmonic structures such as Raman scattering, infrared-enhanced absorption, and surface-enhanced fluorescence. Then it discusses surface plasmon resonance–enhanced detection, highlighted using signal processing, and the color of solutions resulting from the modification of the localized surface plasmon resonance properties of nanoparticles. Porous materials are another field of research where the enhancement is achieved because of an increase in the area-to-volume ratio; porous Si and sculptured thin films prepared by the oblique deposition technique are good examples. The book also thoroughly addresses bacteria detection in water, one of the longstanding problems, with an emphasis on the hindrances usually encountered in detecting large bioentities.
About the Editors:
Ibrahim Abdulhalim is head of the Department of Electro-Optic Engineering at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He has worked in research and development in a variety of academic institutions and industrial companies. From August 1988 to May 1991, he was a research associate within the Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center in the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, where he worked on ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulators. From July 1991 to July 1993, he was a research fellow in the Optoelectronics Research Center of Southampton University, England, working on fiber acousto-optic modulators for Q switching and mode-locking of fiber lasers. During 2000–2001, he was with the Thin Films Center of the University of Western Scotland as a researcher and lecturer. Among the other companies he has been associated with are KLA-Tencor and Nova Measuring Instruments, where he worked on optical metrology systems for the inspection of the fabrication processes in the microelectronics industry, and GWS-Photonics, where he worked on guided wave liquid crystal devices for optical telecommunications. His current research activities involve liquid crystal devices, nanophotonic and plasmonic structures for biosensing, improved biomedical optical imaging techniques such as spectropolarimetric imaging, and full field optical coherence tomography using liquid crystal devices. Prof. Abdulhalim has published more than 120 journal articles, 60 conference proceedings papers, and 10 book chapters and coauthored one book titled Integrated Nanophotonic Devices: Micro and Nano Technologies. He became a fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK, in 2004 and SPIE fellow in 2010. He holds 10 patents and is an associate editor of the SPIE’s Journal of NanoPhotonics and Physics Express.
Robert S. Marks is a professor in the Department of Biotechnology Engineering at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He obtained his PhD from the Weizmann Institute, Israel, and postdoctorate from the University of Cambridge, England. In 1995, he established a biosensors laboratory at Ben Gurion University, Israel, which was followed by the publication of more than 100 papers and 20 chapters and 4 granted patents. His work consists of the development of fiber-optic probes utilizing both novel interfacial functionalization chemistries and transducer configuration, which include fiber-optic immunosensors and fiber-optic bioreporter biosensors for water monitoring. Other projects consist of the development of a chemiluminescent bioreporter nanotoxicity system, a reverse-genetics cell reporter assay to influenza, and bioreporter panel fingerprints for the discovery of bioactive agents. Prof. Marks has chaired 16 international conferences and has given 64 invited and 45 contributed lectures at conferences, 160 poster presentations with colleagues and students, and 79 academic lectures around the world. He is affiliated to the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev and the Ilse Katz Center for Meso and Nano-scale Science and Technology and is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he is part of the NRF CREATE program for Nanomaterials for Energy and Water Management. He is also the founding editor of the Pan Stanford Series of the High-Tech of Biotechnology.
