Plasmonic gratings with nano-protrusions made by glancing angle deposition for single-molecule super-resolution imaging. Issue 24 (2nd June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, B.; Wood, A.; Pathak, A.; Mathai, J.; Bok, S.; Zheng, H.; Hamm, S.; Basuray, S.; Grant, S.; Gangopadhyay, K.; Cornish, P. V.; Gangopadhyay, S.
• Is Part Of: Nanoscale. Volume 8:Issue 24(2016)
• Page Start: 12189
• Page End: 12201
• Publication Date: 2016-06-02
• Subjects: Nanoscience -- Periodicals; Nanotechnology -- Periodicals; 620.505
• DOI: 10.1039/c5nr09165a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-3364

Abstract

Abstract : Plasmonic gratings with incorporated nano-protrusions produced by glancing angle deposition enable simultaneous single-molecule super-resolution imaging over a wide range of fluorophore concentrations. Abstract : Super-resolution imaging has been advantageous in studying biological and chemical systems, but the required equipment and platforms are expensive and unable to observe single-molecules at the high (μM) fluorophore concentrations required to study protein interaction and enzymatic activity. Here, a plasmonic platform was designed that utilized an inexpensively fabricated plasmonic grating in combination with a scalable glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique using physical vapor deposition. The GLAD creates an abundance of plasmonic nano-protrusion probes that combine the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) from the periodic gratings with the localized SPR of these nano-protrusions. The resulting platform enables simultaneous imaging of a large area without point-by-point scanning or bulk averaging for the detection of single Cyanine-5 molecules in dye concentrations ranging from 50 pM to 10 μM using epifluorescence microscopy. Combining the near-field plasmonic nano-protrusion probes and super-resolution technique using localization microscopy, we demonstrate the ability to resolve grain sizes down to 65 nm. This plasmonic GLAD grating is a cost-effective super-resolution imaging substrate with potential applications in high-speed biomedical imaging over a wide range of fluorescent concentrations.