Sensors with the features: portable, low-power, label-free, real-time, compact, high sensitivity, high-throughput, and cost-effective are highly attractive because they can be used in a wide range of fields such as environmental monitoring, homeland security, biomedicine, biochemistry and pharmacy.

Moreover, a label-free sensor would enable direct biochemical and chemical detection, which it is generally desirable due to its non-intrusive nature, in contrast to sensors with labelling compounds.

Since several sensors have already are known to the state of the art, it was the aim of our invention to develop a label-free, integrated HCG-based optical sensor that can be manufactured at low costs. Moreover, it was also an issue of the invention to be able to detect biomolecular, biochemical and chemical interactions with this sensor. The developed sensor provides very specific properties due to its special geometry, which allows the transformation of the whole or of only a part of a normal or of an oblique incidence wave into the in-plane direction.