Physical and chemical characterization of aerosols with photonic waveguides

A photonic aerosol particle sensor comprising:

• a plurality of photonic waveguide resonators, each photonic waveguide resonator comprising a photonic waveguide disposed on an underlying substrate material along a separate waveguide resonator path and having a lateral waveguide width that is different than the lateral waveguide width of other photonic waveguide resonators in the plurality of photonic waveguide resonators, all photonic waveguides in the plurality of photonic waveguide resonators having a common vertical thickness and formed of a common photonic waveguide material having a waveguide material refractive index larger than a substrate material refractive index of the underlying substrate material;
• a microfluidic aerosol particle sensor chamber in which the plurality of photonic waveguide resonators is disposed;
• an aerosol particle input fluidically connected to the microfluidic aerosol particle sensor chamber to fluidically convey aerosol particles into the microfluidic aerosol particle sensor chamber;
• an aerosol particle output fluidically connected to the microfluidic aerosol particle sensor chamber to fluidically convey aerosol particles out of the microfluidic aerosol particle sensor chamber;
• at least one optical input connection for coupling light into each photonic waveguide in the plurality of photonic waveguide resonators;
• and
• at least one optical output connection optically connected to accept light out of the plurality of photonic waveguide resonators to provide a signal indicative of at least one aerosol particle characteristic.