Live-cell SERS endoscopy using plasmonic nanowire waveguides

A novel method for in situ synthesis of SERS-active gold nanostars on polydimethylsiloxane film

A one-step method to form gold nanostars on a polydimethylsiloxane film is proposed for highly-sensitive SERS substrates.

Anisotropic metal nanoparticles for surface enhanced Raman scattering

Anisotropy in plasmonic metal nanoparticles plays a major role in the enhancement of the Raman scattering of adsorbed molecules.

Nano Endoscopy with Plasmon-Enhanced Fluorescence for Sensitive Sensing Inside Ultrasmall Volume Samples

Plasmon-enhanced fluorescence (PEF) generally requires the samples settled on a metal substrate and the effective enhancement distance is less than 100 nm, which limit its application in intracellular sensing. Herein, we report a nano endoscopy with PEF effect for sensing analytes inside the extremely small volume samples. The nano endoscopy was fabricated by assembling single nanoporous gold nanowire (PGNW) on the tip of a tungsten needle. It was accurately manipulated to insert into a micro droplet, and an effective sensing was realized at micrometre scale with submicrometer resolution. By taking lysozyme as a model sensing target, a 23-fold improvement of sensitivity was obtained, comparing with that of smooth gold nanowire (SGNW). These results indicated that the nano endoscopy can realize a high spatial resolution sensing, showing its potential application in intracellular sensing.

Electric field enhancement with plasmonic colloidal nanoantennas excited by a silicon nitride waveguide

We investigate the feasibility of CMOS-compatible optical structures to develop novel integrated spectroscopy systems. We show that local field enhancement is achievable utilizing dimers of plasmonic nanospheres that can be assembled from colloidal solutions on top of a CMOS-compatible optical waveguide. The resonant dimer nanoantennas are excited by modes guided in the integrated silicon nitride waveguide. Simulations show that 100-fold electric field enhancement builds up in the dimer gap as compared to the waveguide evanescent field amplitude at the same location. We investigate how the field enhancement depends on dimer location, orientation, distance and excited waveguide mode.

Sharp-Tip Silver Nanowires Mounted on Cantilevers for High-Aspect-Ratio High-Resolution Imaging

Despite many efforts to fabricate high-aspect-ratio atomic force microscopy (HAR-AFM) probes for high-fidelity, high-resolution topographical imaging of three-dimensional (3D) nanostructured surfaces, current HAR probes still suffer from unsatisfactory performance, low wear-resistivity, and extravagant prices. The primary objective of this work is to demonstrate a novel design of a high-resolution (HR) HAR AFM probe, which is fabricated through a reliable, cost-efficient benchtop process to precisely implant a single ultrasharp metallic nanowire on a standard AFM cantilever probe. The force-displacement curve indicated that the HAR-HR probe is robust against buckling and bending up to 150 nN. The probes were tested on polymer trenches, showing a much better image fidelity when compared with standard silicon tips. The lateral resolution, when scanning a rough metal thin film and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SW-CNTs), was found to be better than 8 nm. Finally, stable imaging quality in tapping mode was demonstrated for at least 15 continuous scans indicating high resistance to wear. These results demonstrate a reliable benchtop fabrication technique toward metallic HAR-HR AFM probes with performance parallel or exceeding that of commercial HAR probes, yet at a fraction of their cost.

Plasmonically Engineered Nanoprobes for Biomedical Applications

The localized surface plasmon resonance of metal nanoparticles is the collective oscillation of electrons on particle surface, induced by incident light, and is a particle composition-, morphology-, and coupling-dependent property. Plasmonic engineering deals with highly precise formation of the targeted nanostructures with targeted plasmonic properties (e.g., electromagnetic field distribution and enhancement) via controlled synthetic, assembling, and atomic/molecular tuning strategies. These plasmonically engineered nanoprobes (PENs) have a variety of unique and beneficial physical, chemical, and biological properties, including optical signal enhancement, catalytic, and local temperature-tuning photothermal properties. In particular, for biomedical applications, there are many useful properties from PENs including LSPR-based sensing, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, metal-enhanced fluorescence, dark-field light-scattering, metal-mediated fluorescence resonance energy transfer, photothermal effect, photodynamic effect, photoacoustic effect, and plasmon-induced circular dichroism. These properties can be utilized for the development of new biotechnologies and biosensing, bioimaging, therapeutic, and theranostic applications in medicine. This Perspective introduces the concept of plasmonic engineering in designing and synthesizing PENs for biomedical applications, gives recent examples of biomedically functional PENs, and discusses the issues and future prospects of PENs for practical applications in bioscience, biotechnology, and medicine.

Subcellular and in-vivo Nano-Endoscopy

Analysis of individual cells at the subcellular level is important for understanding diseases and accelerating drug discovery. Nanoscale endoscopes allow minimally invasive probing of individual cell interiors. Several such instruments have been presented previously, but they are either too complex to fabricate or require sophisticated external detectors because of low signal collection efficiency. Here we present a nanoendoscope that can locally excite fluorescence in labelled cell organelles and collect the emitted signal for spectral analysis. Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulations have shown that with an optimized nanoendoscope taper profile, the light emission and collection was localized within ~100 nm. This allows signal detection to be used for nano-photonic sensing of the proximity of fluorophores. Upon insertion into the individual organelles of living cells, the nanoendoscope was fabricated and resultant fluorescent signals collected. This included the signal collection from the nucleus of Acridine orange labelled human fibroblast cells, the nucleus of Hoechst stained live liver cells and the mitochondria of MitoTracker Red labelled MDA-MB-231 cells. The endoscope was also inserted into a live organism, the yellow fluorescent protein producing nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and a fluorescent signal was collected. To our knowledge this is the first demonstration of in vivo, local fluorescence signal collection on the sub-organelle level.

Frequency-resolved optical gating measurement of ultrashort pulses by using single nanowire

The use of ultrashort pulses for fundamental studies and applications has been increasing rapidly in the past decades. Along with the development of ultrashort lasers, exploring new pulse diagnositic approaches with higher signal-to-noise ratio have attracted great scientific and technological interests. In this work, we demonstrate a simple technique of ultrashort pulses characterization with a single semiconductor nanowire. By performing a frequency-resolved optical gating method with a ZnO nanowire coupled to tapered optical microfibers, the phase and amplitude of a pulse series are extracted. The generated signals from the transverse frequency conversion process can be spatially distinguished from the input, so the signal-to-noise ratio is improved and permits lower energy pulses to be identified. Besides, since the nanometer scale of the nonlinear medium provides relaxed phase-matching constraints, a measurement of 300-nm-wide supercontinuum pulses is achieved. This system is highly compatible with standard optical fiber systems, and shows a great potential for applications such as on-chip optical communication.

Active modulation of visible light with graphene-loaded ultrathin metal plasmonic antennas

Electro-optical modulation of visible and near-infrared light is important for a wide variety of applications, ranging from communications to sensing and smart windows. However, currently available approaches result in rather bulky devices, suffer from low integrability, and can hardly operate at the low power consumption levels and fast switching rates required by microelectronic drivers. Here we show that planar nanostructures patterned in ultrathin metal-graphene hybrid films sustain highly tunable plasmons in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions. Strong variations in the reflection and absorption of incident light take place when the plasmons are tuned on- and off-resonance with respect to externally incident light. As a result, a remarkable modulation depth (i.e., the maximum relative variation with/without graphene doping) exceeding 90% in transmission and even more dramatic in reflection (>600%) is predicted for graphene-loaded silver films of 1–5 nm thickness and currently attainable lateral dimensions. These new structures hold great potential for fast low-power electro-optical modulation.

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering and Gated Materials for Sensing Applications: The Ultrasensitive Detection of Mycoplasma and Cocaine

We present herein a novel combination of gated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for sensing applications. As a proof-of-concept, we show the design of a system comprising MSNs loaded with crystal violet (CV), a molecule with high Raman cross section acting as SERS reporter, and capped with either a suitable DNA sequence for the detection of Mycoplasma genomic DNA or with an aptamer that selectively coordinates cocaine. In both cases the presence of the corresponding target analyte in solution (i.e., genomic DNA or cocaine) resulted in the release of CV. CV delivery was detected by SERS upon adsorption on gold nanotriangles (AuNTs), which display an efficient electromagnetic field enhancement and a high colloidal stability. By using this novel procedure a limit of detection of at least 30 copies DNA per μL was determined for the detection of Mycoplasma genomic DNA, whereas cocaine was detected at concentrations as low as 10 nm.

Super-resolution Localization and Defocused Fluorescence Microscopy on Resonantly Coupled Single-Molecule, Single-Nanorod Hybrids

Optical antennas made of metallic nanostructures dramatically enhance single-molecule fluorescence to boost the detection sensitivity. Moreover, emission properties detected at the optical far field are dictated by the antenna. Here we study the emission from molecule–antenna hybrids by means of super-resolution localization and defocused imaging. Whereas gold nanorods make single-crystal violet molecules in the tip’s vicinity visible in fluorescence, super-resolution localization on the enhanced molecular fluorescence reveals geometrical centers of the nanorod antenna instead. Furthermore, emission angular distributions of dyes linked to the nanorod surface resemble that of nanorods in defocused imaging. The experimental observations are consistent with numerical calculations using the finite-difference time-domain method.

Propagating Surface Plasmon Polaritons: Towards Applications for Remote-Excitation Surface Catalytic Reactions

Plasmonics is a well-established field, exploiting the interaction of light and metals at the nanoscale; with the help of surface plasmon polaritons, remote-excitation can also be observed by using silver or gold plasmonic waveguides. Recently, plasmonic catalysis was established as a new exciting platform for heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Recent reports present remote-excitation surface catalytic reactions as a route to enhance the rate of chemical reactions, and offer a pathway to control surface catalytic reactions. In this review, we focus on recent advanced reports on silver plasmonic waveguide for remote-excitation surface catalytic reactions. First, the synthesis methods and characterization techniques of sivelr nanowire plasmonic waveguides are summarized, and the properties and physical mechanisms of plasmonic waveguides are presented in detail. Then, the applications of plasmonic waveguides including remote excitation fluorescence and SERS are introduced, and we focus on the field of remote-excitation surface catalytic reactions. Finally, forecasts are made for possible future applications for the remote-excitation surface catalysis by plasmonic waveguides in living cells.

Spatially, Temporally, and Quantitatively Controlled Delivery of Broad Range of Molecules into Selected Cells through Plasmonic Nanotubes

A Universal plasmonic/microfluidic platform for spatial and temporal controlled intracellular delivery is described. The system can inject/transfect the desired amount of molecules with an efficacy close to 100%. Moreover, it is highly scalable from single cells to large ensembles without administering the molecules to an extracellular bath. The latter enables quantitative control over the amount of injected molecules.

Out-of-Plane Plasmonic Antennas for Raman Analysis in Living Cells

Out-of-plane plasmonic nanoantennas protruding from the substrate are exploited to perform very sensitive surface enhanced Raman scattering analysis of living cells. Cells cultured on three-dimensional surfaces exhibit tight adhesion with nanoantenna tips where the plasmonic hot-spot resides. This fact provides observable cell adhesion sites combined with high plasmonic enhancement, resulting in an ideal system for Raman investigation of cell membranes.

Controlled Living Nanowire Growth: Precise Control over the Morphology and Optical Properties of AgAuAg Bimetallic Nanowires

Inspired by the concept of living polymerization reaction, we are able to produce silver-gold-silver nanowires with a precise control over their total length and plasmonic properties by establishing a constant silver deposition rate on the tips of penta-twinned gold nanorods used as seed cores. Consequently, the length of the wires increases linearly in time. Starting with ∼210 nm × 32 nm gold cores, we produce nanowire lengths up to several microns in a highly controlled manner, with a small self-limited increase in thickness of ∼4 nm, corresponding to aspect ratios above 100, whereas the low polydispersity of the product allows us to detect up to nine distinguishable plasmonic resonances in a single colloidal solution. We analyze the spatial distribution and the nature of the plasmons by electron energy loss spectroscopy and obtain excellent agreement between measurements and electromagnetic simulations, clearly demonstrating that the presence of the gold core plays a marginal role, except for relatively short wires or high-energy modes.

One-Dimensional Dielectric/Metallic Hybrid Materials for Photonic Applications

Explorations of 1D nanostructures have led to great progress in the area of nanophotonics in the past decades. Based on either dielectric or metallic materials, a variety of 1D photonic devices have been developed, such as nanolasers, waveguides, optical switches, and routers. What's interesting is that these dielectric systems enjoy low propagation losses and usually possess active optical performance, but they have a diffraction-limited field confinement. Alternatively, metallic systems can guide light on deep subwavelength scales, but they suffer from high metallic absorption and can work as passive devices only. Thus, the idea to construct a hybrid system that combines the merits of both dielectric and metallic materials was proposed. To date, unprecedented optical properties have been achieved in various 1D hybrid systems, which manifest great potential for functional nanophotonic devices. Here, the focus is on recent advances in 1D dielectric/metallic hybrid systems, with a special emphasis on novel structure design, rational fabrication techniques, unique performance, as well as their wide application in photonic components. Gaining a better understanding of hybrid systems would benefit the design of nanophotonic components aimed at optical information processing.

Splitting a droplet for femtoliter liquid patterns and single cell isolation

Well-defined microdroplet generation has attracted great interest, which is important for the high-resolution patterning and matrix distribution for chemical reactions and biological assays. By sliding a droplet on a patterned superhydrophilic/superhydrophobic substrate, tiny microdroplet arrays low to femtoliter were achieved with uniform volume and composition. Using this method, cells were successfully isolated, resulting in a single cell array. The droplet-splitting method is facile, sample-effective, and low-cost, which will be of great potential for the development of microdroplet arrays for biological analysis as well as patterning system and devices.

Transmission of photonic quantum polarization entanglement in a nanoscale hybrid plasmonic waveguide

Photonic quantum technologies have been extensively studied in quantum information science, owing to the high-speed transmission and outstanding low-noise properties of photons. However, applications based on photonic entanglement are restricted due to the diffraction limit. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time the maintaining of quantum polarization entanglement in a nanoscale hybrid plasmonic waveguide composed of a fiber taper and a silver nanowire. The transmitted state throughout the waveguide has a fidelity of 0.932 with the maximally polarization entangled state Φ(+). Furthermore, the Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt (CHSH) inequality test performed, resulting in value of 2.495 ± 0.147 > 2, demonstrates the violation of the hidden variable model. Because the plasmonic waveguide confines the effective mode area to subwavelength scale, it can bridge nanophotonics and quantum optics and may be used as near-field quantum probe in a quantum near-field micro/nanoscope, which can realize high spatial resolution, ultrasensitive, fiber-integrated, and plasmon-enhanced detection.

High resolution live cell Raman imaging using subcellular organelle-targeting SERS-sensitive gold nanoparticles with highly narrow intra-nanogap

We report a method to achieve high speed and high resolution live cell Raman images using small spherical gold nanoparticles with highly narrow intra-nanogap structures responding to NIR excitation (785 nm) and high-speed confocal Raman microscopy. The three different Raman-active molecules placed in the narrow intra-nanogap showed a strong and uniform Raman intensity in solution even under transient exposure time (10 ms) and low input power of incident laser (200 μW), which lead to obtain high-resolution single cell image within 30 s without inducing significant cell damage. The high resolution Raman image showed the distributions of gold nanoparticles for their targeted sites such as cytoplasm, mitochondria, or nucleus. The high speed Raman-based live cell imaging allowed us to monitor rapidly changing cell morphologies during cell death induced by the addition of highly toxic KCN solution to cells. These results strongly suggest that the use of SERS-active nanoparticle can greatly improve the current temporal resolution and image quality of Raman-based cell images enough to obtain the detailed cell dynamics and/or the responses of cells to potential drug molecules.

Visualization of molecular fluorescence point spread functions via remote excitation switching fluorescence microscopy

The enhancement of molecular absorption, emission and scattering processes by coupling to surface plasmon polaritons on metallic nanoparticles is a key issue in plasmonics for applications in (bio)chemical sensing, light harvesting and photocatalysis. Nevertheless, the point spread functions for single-molecule emission near metallic nanoparticles remain difficult to characterize due to fluorophore photodegradation, background emission and scattering from the plasmonic structure. Here we overcome this problem by exciting fluorophores remotely using plasmons propagating along metallic nanowires. The experiments reveal a complex array of single-molecule fluorescence point spread functions that depend not only on nanowire dimensions but also on the position and orientation of the molecular transition dipole. This work has consequences for both single-molecule regime-sensing and super-resolution imaging involving metallic nanoparticles and opens the possibilities for fast size sorting of metallic nanoparticles, and for predicting molecular orientation and binding position on metallic nanoparticles via far-field optical imaging.

Plasmonic nanoparticles can dramatically enhance the optical properties of molecules but background scattering is a limiting factor. Su et al. use remote excitation by plasmons on nanowires to better access single fluorophore point spread functions for improved sensing and super-resolution imaging.

Modulation of fluorescence signals from biomolecules along nanowires due to interaction of light with oriented nanostructures

High aspect ratio nanostructures have gained increasing interest as highly sensitive platforms for biosensing. Here, well-defined biofunctionalized vertical indium arsenide nanowires are used to map the interaction of light with nanowires depending on their orientation and the excitation wavelength. We show how nanowires act as antennas modifying the light distribution and the emitted fluorescence. This work highlights an important optical phenomenon in quantitative fluorescence studies and constitutes an important step for future studies using such nanostructures.

Gold nanodome-patterned microchips for intracellular surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Top-down patterned gold nanodome microchips are taken up by living cells and serve as a uniform and reproducible sensor for intracellular surface-enhanced Raman scattering.