| Analyte | The target molecule in solution that binds specifically to the ligand immobilized on the mologram. |
| Avidity | The cumulative binding strength when multiple binding sites engage simultaneously, resulting in slower apparent dissociation. |
| Backfilling | The process of immobilizing a chemically similar non-active molecule into the grooves of the mologram, ensuring affinity-matched NSB suppression in complex media. |
| Blank | An injection carrying everything except the analyte — buffer, or sample matrix with no target. Blanks define the noise floor a limit of detection is measured against, and reveal a ridge–groove mismatch when their CMD does not stay flat. |
| Cleanup action | An explicit, ordered transformation applied to processed data before it is fitted — removing an offset, trimming a phase, subtracting a blank, normalizing. Actions run in the order listed and can be reordered, disabled, or edited without being deleted. |
| Coherent Mass Density (CMD) | The diffractometric signal of FM, reported in pg/mm². Reports mass changes that follow the mologram pattern. Common-mode bulk and surface changes are strongly suppressed while ridge and groove conditions stay matched. |
| Coupling | Directing the laser into the waveguide so it propagates as a guided mode along the chip. Coupling must be symmetric across all eight channels before a measurement; the software reports it during reader preparation. |
| Dead volume | The sample volume that cannot be aspirated from a well or vial because the needle cannot reach it. It sets the minimum you must pipette above the volume actually injected. |
| Dehybridization | Melting the DNA duplex that anchors a ligand to a DDI chip, usually with 50 mM NaOH. It removes the whole ligand layer rather than only the bound analyte, so a fresh ligand can be loaded for the next cycle. |
| Focal Spot | The diffraction-limited point of constructive interference formed by the patterned ligand on the mologram ridges; analyte binding changes its intensity. |
| Fourier aperture | The optical stop the molographic focus must fall inside. A symmetric intensity distribution within it indicates the chip is correctly positioned; it is checked during reader preparation. |
| Frontfilling | The process of immobilizing the specific capture ligand onto the ridges of the mologram. |
| Grooves | The reference regions of the mologram, backfilled on [Oligo|Oligo] and [Me-Tz|Tz] surfaces, that provide the periodic contrast needed for diffraction and serve as the built-in nanoscale reference. |
| Guided mode | The light confined inside the Ta₂O₅ waveguide layer as it travels along the chip. It carries the evanescent field that senses the surface. |
| Ligand | The capture molecule immobilized on the mologram (e.g., antibody, DNA) that specifically binds the analyte of interest. |
| Mass Density (MD) | The refractometric signal of FM, reported in pg/mm². Responds to all refractive-index changes at the surface, analogous to SPR response units. Used primarily as a diagnostic channel. |
| Mass transport | Diffusion of analyte from bulk solution across the unstirred boundary layer to the surface. When it is slower than binding, the measurement is transport-limited and the fitted association rate underestimates the true one. |
| Mologram | A nanostructured, periodic pattern on the sensor surface composed of ligand-functionalized ridges and non-binding grooves that produces coherent scattering when analytes bind. |
Mologram Naming (SM_RxCy) | Single Mologram at Row x, Column y on the 8 × 8 chip grid. Example: SM_R3C4 = row 3, column 4. |
| Nonspecific Binding (NSB) | Random adsorption of molecules to the surface that generates incoherent background signal, strongly suppressed in the CMD channel under matched conditions — that is, when ridge–groove chemistry is affinity-matched. |
| Processed data | A named selection of raw measurement data together with its ordered cleanup actions. Evaluations run on processed data, so two evaluations of the same raw data can differ only in the cleanup applied. |
| Raw data | The measurement as recorded, before any selection or cleanup. It is never altered; every correction lives in processed data. |
| Rebinding | Analyte that has just dissociated binding a neighbouring free site before it diffuses away. It flattens the dissociation phase and underestimates the off-rate; high flow and low ligand density suppress it. |
| Regeneration | The process of removing bound analytes from the mologram surface to allow chip reuse or sequential measurements. |
| Report point | A response value read from a trace at a defined moment — the end of an injection, a fixed time after it, or a slope across a window. Report points are the unit compared between samples, chips and runs. |
| Ridges | Active regions of the mologram functionalized with capture molecules where specific binding occurs. |
| Rmax | The response when every ligand site is occupied — the ceiling of a sensorgram. It scales with immobilized ligand, so a low R_max is the sign of the low-density surface that gives clean kinetics. |
| Scouting | A wizard goal that qualifies an assay before a full experiment: that the ligands immobilize, backfilling behaves as expected, and the analyte binds. |
| Sensorgram | A real-time plot of binding response (coherent mass density) versus time, showing association and dissociation phases. |
| Stop condition | A rule that ends an injection when the trace reaches a target rather than after a fixed time — used to reach a chosen immobilization level reproducibly. |
| Waveguide | The thin-film optical layer on the sensor chip that guides the laser light and enables evanescent field interaction with the mologram. |