Electro-photonic chip-scale microsystem for label-free single bacteria monitoring

Monitoring of bacteria metabolism/viability at single level during the antibiotics action is a crucial functionality for systems supporting the development of new drugs able to kill bacteria resistant to all or nearly all antibiotics currently available. In this paper, we report on an electro-photonic chip-scale microsystem including an array of photonic nanocavities each able to trap a single bacterium. By monitoring the spectral response of the nanophotonic cavities and the electrical impedance across the trapping sites, a detailed knowledge of the metabolic state of trapped bacteria can be obtained. By three-dimensional simulations based on the finite element method, we predict a high electrical detection resolution of the microsystem, with a current variation of a factor 12 between dead and live bacteria.