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.