3D plasmonic crystal metamaterials for ultra-sensitive biosensing

Abstract

We explore the excitation of plasmons in 3D plasmon crystal metamaterials and report the observation of a delocalized plasmon mode, which provides extremely high spectral sensitivity (>2600 nm per refractive index unit (RIU) change), outperforming all plasmonic counterparts excited in 2D nanoscale geometries, as well as a prominent phase-sensitive response (>3*104 deg. of phase per RIU). Combined with a large surface for bioimmobilization provided by the 3D matrix, the proposed sensor architecture promises a new important landmark in the advancement of plasmonic biosensing technology.

Advances in optoplasmonic sensors – combining optical nano/microcavities and photonic crystals with plasmonic nanostructures and nanoparticles

“…Though manifold protocols exist to modify noble metals and other plasmonic materials, they are Measured and computed (with an effective medium approximation) spectral position of the reflection minimum for a refractive index change due to injection of varyingly concentrated glycerol. Adapted from [175]. (C) Oblique view of a modelled 3D inverse woodpile PhC with a point defect, resulting in a 3D PBG cavity.…”

“…Sophisticated slotted waveguides [141,[151][152][153] as well as nanobeam cavities [140,146,150,[154][155][156][157][158][159][160] have also been implemented for analyte-specific stoichiometric studies and biomolecule micromanipulation. Extreme, sub-attomolar detection of a streptavidin protein was reported for nanoslot PhC nanolasers [139,[161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168], while novel PhC nanocavities combined with plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as hybrid photonic-plasmonic biosensors [169][170][171][172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179]. Unusually sensitive biodetection down to the single-molecule level with nanostructured materials comprising selfassembled silver nanoparticles on PhC diatom biosilica [180,181] and a gold antenna-in-a-nanocavity [182] substantiates the fast and steady advancement of hybrid photonic-plasmonic instrumentation utilising PhCs.…”

Photonic crystals: emerging biosensors and their promise for point-of-care applications

“…169–172 For instance, a PC metamaterial with a 3-D woodpile geometry was proposed to excite plasmons with high spectral sensitivity. 170 The proposed structure was a silver-coated woodpile crystal providing a high surface-to-volume ratio with a sensitivity more than 2600 nm per refractive index unit (RIU) (Fig. 9c and d).…”

Recent advances in surface plasmon resonance imaging: detection speed, sensitivity, and portability

“…With these structures, the authors demonstrated labelfree SPR sensing with perpendicular transmission configuration using an incoherent white light source. More recently, Aristov et al [107] reported a 3D plasmonic nanostructure for ultrasensitive biosensing ( Figure 9). In their design, a 3D silver-coated woodpile crystal structure was fabricated by direct laser writing followed by electroless silver plating.…”