Grating waveguide structure for multi-analyte determinations and the use thereof

The invention relates to variable embodiments of a grating waveguide structure which enables to determine locally resolved changes of the resonance conditions for the incoupling of an excitation light into the waveguiding layer (a) of a stratified optical waveguide by means of a grating structure (c) modulated in said layer (a) or for outcoupling of a light guided in layer (a). The inventive system comprises arrays of measurement areas produced on the grating waveguide structure having different immobilized biological or biochemical or synthetic recognition elements for simultaneously binding and determining one or more analytes, wherein said excitation light is simultaneously irradiated onto an entire array of measurement areas, and the degree of satisfaction of the resonance condition for the incoupling of light into the layer (a) towards said measurement areas is simultaneously measured. The invention also relates to an optical system comprising at least one excitation light source and at least one locally resolving detector and, optionally, positioning elements for altering the angle of incidence of the excitation light onto the inventive grating waveguide structure. The invention additionally relates to a corresponding measuring method and to the use thereof. Surprisingly, it has been found that the inventive method is well-suited as an imaging detection method with high local resolution and sensitivity.