A new family of boron difluoride-rigidified dyes, phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole-quinoline boron difluoride (PQBD), with solid-state fluorescence has been designed and synthesized. The novel series of PQBD are advantageous over the typical boron difluoride-rigidified dyes such as BODIPYs in terms of large Stokes shift and red fluorescence in the solid state.

We report the use of copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC) to selectively functionalize the internal and external surfaces of mesoporous materials. Porous silicon rugate filters with narrow line width reflectivity peaks were employed to demonstrate this selective surface functionalization approach. Hydrosilylation of a dialkyne species, 1,8-nonadiyne, was performed to stabilize the freshly fabricated porous silicon rugate filters against oxidation and to allow for further chemical derivatization via "click" CuAAC reactions. The external surface was modified through CuAAC reactions performed in the absence of nitrogen-based Cu(I)-stabilizing species (i.e., ligand-free reactions). To subsequently modify the interior pore surface, stabilization of the Cu(I) catalyst was required. Optical reflectivity measurements, water contact angle measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to demonstrate the ability of the derivatization approach to selectively modify mesoporous materials with different surface chemistry on the exterior and interior surfaces. Furthermore, porous silicon rugate filters modified externally with the cell-adhesive peptide Gly-Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser (GRGDS) allowed for cell adhesion via formation of focal adhesion points. Results presented here demonstrate a general approach to selectively modify mesoporous silicon samples with potential applications for cell-based biosensing.

Porous silicon photonics is the ideal platform for high sensitivity, high selectivity monitoring of biological molecules in a complex fluidic environment. The potential of this technology was identified almost 15 years ago, however, it has taken considerable advances in porous silicon surface chemistry, photonics, and micro-fabrication to create truly effective devices that can provide new insights into the behaviour of biological systems. In this review we provide a critical assessment of the development of porous silicon optical biosensors from the early demonstrations of affinity based sensing to the current trends in monitoring single cell activity and perspectives in the use of photonic microparticles for biomedical applications.

It is known that self-assembled molecular monolayer doping technique has the advantages of forming ultra-shallow junctions and introducing minimal defects in semiconductors. In this paper, we report however the formation of carbon-related defects in the molecular monolayer-doped silicon as detected by deep-level transient spectroscopy and low-temperature Hall measurements. The molecular monolayer doping process is performed by modifying silicon substrate with phosphorus-containing molecules and annealing at high temperature. The subsequent rapid thermal annealing drives phosphorus dopants along with carbon contaminants into the silicon substrate, resulting in a dramatic decrease of sheet resistance for the intrinsic silicon substrate. Low-temperature Hall measurements and secondary ion mass spectrometry indicate that phosphorus is the only electrically active dopant after the molecular monolayer doping. However, during this process, at least 20% of the phosphorus dopants are electrically deactivated. The deep-level transient spectroscopy shows that carbon-related defects are responsible for such deactivation.

In this paper we demonstrate the possibility of modifying porous silicon (PSi) particles with surface chemistry and recognition molecules (antibodies) such that these devices could potentially be used for singlecell identification or sensing. This is achieved by modifying PSi Rugate filters via hydrosilylation with surface chemistry that serves firstly, to protect the silicon surfaces from oxidation; secondly, renders the surfaces resistant to nonspecific adsorption of proteins and cells and thirdly, allows further functionality to be added such as the coupling of antibodies. The surface chemistry remained unchanged after sonication of the PSi to form PSi microparticles. The ability to monitor the spectroscopic properties of microparticles, and shifts in the optical signature due to changes in the refractive index of the material within the pore space, is demonstrated. The particles are shown to remain stable in physiological buffers and human blood for longer than one week. Finally, the modification of the PSi particles with functional antibodies is achieved.

This Report presents a nitrogen-doping method by chemically forming self-assembled monolayers on silicon. Van der Pauw technique, secondary-ion mass spectroscopy and low temperature Hall effect measurements are employed to characterize the nitrogen dopants. The experimental data show that the diffusion coefficient of nitrogen dopants is 3.66 × 10−15 cm2 s−1, 2 orders magnitude lower than that of phosphorus dopants in silicon. It is found that less than 1% of nitrogen dopants exhibit electrical activity. The analysis of Hall effect data at low temperatures indicates that the donor energy level for nitrogen dopants is located at 189 meV below the conduction band, consistent with the literature value.

In this paper we report on the light emitting properties of mesoporous silicon vertical-cavity optical resonators with II-VI colloidal quantum dots selectively deposited in the cavity layer. Optical resonator structures exhibit reflectivity stop bands of several hundred nanometres and resonant modes with line-widths less than 3.5 nm. The observed modification of spectral and spatial emission properties of the quantum dots and tenfold enhancement at the resonance wavelength is consistent with cavity enhanced spontaneous emission. Using this hybrid fabrication approach we show that narrow band light emitting structures may be fabricated over a broad spectral region in the visible and near-infrared.

We have constructed a new rhodamine-based FRET platform, which was then used to develop a ratiometric fluorescent Cu(2+) probe. The novel Cu(2+) probe exhibits several favorable features including a large variation in the emission ratio, well-resolved emission peaks, high sensitivity, and high selectivity. Importantly, it is suitable for fluorescence imaging in living cells.