Plasmonic Halos Towards Molecular Sensing of Target Biomarkers

Diagnostic tools e.g., those used in the biomedical field, have greatly benefited from taking advantage of the properties of plasmonic phenomena in micro- and nano-scale thin films and structures [1]. Here, we discuss the considerations involved in the design and fabrication of a previously reported plasmonic microstructure towards the goal of sensitive detection of disease biomarkers [2]. We show current fabrication results and motivate relevant processes, parameters and materials therein. We describe our measurement setup and provide comparison to a commercially available system, particularly to motivate how our device can extend existing detection tools to point-of-care applications. We introduce preliminary device responses and our approaches to current obstacles of the project.

[1] T. Chung, S. Lee, E.Y. Song, H. Chun, B. Lee, Sensors, 11, 10907–10929 (2011)
[2] F. Ye, M.J. Burns, M.J. Naughton, Nano Lett, 13, 519-523 (2013)
[3] The authors thank Dr. Fan Ye and Steve Shepard for beneficial communications.