Ultrasensitive portable optoelectronic system dedicated to detection of bioluminescence

Abstract

This work aims to show that we can design a portable luminometer field capable of accurately detecting the femtomole of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by using bioluminescence and optoelectronic noise measurement in order to reduce noise levels. We present our results with a demonstrator on the ATP detection which is an indicator of the presence of living cells in a medium and therefore a possible microbiological contamination. Experiments are made using a luminometer whose the sensor is an optoelectronic device which may be a photodiode or a photomultiplier. Multiplication noise and Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) are evaluated in order to compare the prototype luminometer performances with those of laboratory equipment used to evaluate the detectable minimum optical power of our portable prototype luminometers. All data allow to evaluate Equivalent Noise Input Photon used in the evaluation of the optical power detected due to the luminescence and estimate ATP concentration lower than the femtomole.