Nanoscaled ZnO films used as enhanced substrates for fluorescence detection of dyes

The ability of nanoscaled ZnO films to enhance fluorescence was studied.We found that the fluorescence intensities of Cy5,rhodamine 6G,and fluorescein can be enhanced about 10-fold on nanoscaled ZnO films as compared to that on glass substrates.The lifetimes of all samples were measured,and no obvious change in lifetime was observed for dyes on different substrates.The mechanism for the nanoscaled ZnO film enhanced fluorescence appears to be different from that for the metal-fluorophore systems.     

Nanoscaled ZnO films used as enhanced substrates for fluorescence detection of dyes

The ability of nanoscaled ZnO films to enhance fluorescence was studied. We found that the fluorescence intensities of Cy5, rhodamine 6G, and fluorescein can be enhanced about 10-fold on nanoscaled ZnO films as compared to that on glass substrates. The lifetimes of all samples were measured, and no obvious change in lifetime was observed for dyes on different substrates. The mechanism for the nanoscaled ZnO film enhanced fluorescence appears to be different from that for the metal-fluorophore systems.     

Characterization of the Plasmonic Fluorescence Enhancement of Poly (3-hexylthiophene) for Organic Solar Cell Applications

The dependence of surface-enhanced fluorescence of the semiconducting polymer poly (3-hexylthiophene) on the diameter of silver nanoparticles was studied. Particle suspensions with a high degree of monodispersity, ranging in diameter from 15 to 153 nm, were synthesized. Polymer films were spin-cast onto substrates containing immobilized silver particles. Fluorescence enhancement factors ranged from 0.9 to 4.9 and generally improved with increasing particle size. Normalization of the fluorescence enhancement to the number of interrogated particles showed an 800-fold increase in enhancement between the smallest and largest particles.     

Metal Enhanced Fluorescence Solution-based Sensing Platform 2: Fluorescent Core-Shell Ag@SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Nanoballs

In this Rapid Communication, we present the development of monodisperse core-shell (silver core-silica shell) nanoparticles with various shell thicknesses featuring a fluorophore, subsequently named Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF) nanoballs. MEF nanoballs consist of a ≈130 nm silver nanoparticle core, a silica shell with up to 35 nm thickness and fluorophores doped within the silica shell. Fluorescent nanobubbles where the silver core is removed by chemical etching are used as control samples to show the benefits of using silver nanoparticles, i.e, Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence. Finally, we demonstrate the broad potential biological applications of MEF nanoballs by employing near-infra red emitting probes (Rhodamine 800) within the silica shell, for potential applications in cellular imaging and solution-based sensing. Kadir Aslan, Meng Wu, Contributed equally     

Low Temperature Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence

In this short letter, we describe the effects of low temperature on the Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF) phenomenon. Fluorophores close to Silver Island Films (SiFs) show on average two- to ten-fold enhancements in their fluorescence signatures at room temperature. However, at 77 K, we have observed that MEF is even more pronounced as compared to an identical glass control sample. We also demonstrate that the further enhancements in MEF occur at low temperature over a range of visible wavelengths for different fluorophores, for both SiFs and 20 nm surface deposited gold colloids.     

Microwave-Triggered Chemiluminescence with Planar Geometrical Aluminum Substrates: Theory,Simulation and Experiment

Previously we combined common practices in protein detection with chemiluminescence, microwave technology, and metal-enhanced chemiluminescence to demonstrate that we can use low power microwaves to substantially increase enzymatic chemiluminescent reaction rates on particulate silvered substrates. We now describe the applicability of continuous aluminum metal substrates to potentially further enhance or "trigger" enzymatic chemiluminescence reactions. Furthermore, our results suggest that the extent of chemiluminescence enhancement for surface and solution based enzyme reactions critically depends on the surface geometry of the aluminum film. In addition, we also use FDTD simulations to model the interactions of the incident microwave radiation with the aluminum geometries used. We demonstrate that the extent of microwave field enhancement for solution and surface based chemiluminescent reactions can be ascribed to "lightning rod" effects that give rise to different electric field distributions for microwaves incident on planar aluminum geometries. With these results, we believe that we can spatially and temporally control the extent of triggered chemiluminescence with low power microwave (Mw) pulses and maximize localized microwave triggered metal-enhanced chemiluminescence (MT-MEC) with optimized planar aluminum geometries. Thus we can potentially further improve the sensitivity of immunoassays with significantly enhanced signal-to-noise ratios.     

金属表面荧光增强的物理增强机制

具有特殊形貌及构型的表面(如金属薄膜)能够使位于其邻近的荧光分子的荧光信号得到增强, 这种现象被称之为表面增强荧光(Surface Enhanced Fluorescence, SEF)。有关表面增强荧光效应的研究探讨已有许多报道,并先后提出了多种增强机理以试图理解和解释观测到的实验现象。本文将在总结归纳已有机理研究的基础上,从物理学的角度出发分析理解局域场增强、能量转移以及辐射衰减速率增加等理论模型,并对衬底表面与荧光分子之间的间距变化对增强效果的影响进行探讨。     

银纳米粒子的SERS效应和SEF效应在微流控芯片光学检测中的应用

银纳米离子的SERS技术和SEF技术的信号检测灵敏度非常高,可以用在微流控芯片的定量分析中。为了提高微流控芯片光学检测技术的检测精度,提出一种在微通道中添加银纳米粒子来增强SYBR GreenⅠ拉曼和荧光信号的方法,并对该方法的原理和增强效果进行了研究。首先,利用准分子激光器在PMMA基板上直写刻蚀出宽200 μm、深68 μm的微通道,接着将制备的银前体溶液加入微通道,通过加热制备出表面增强拉曼（SERS）和表面增强荧光（SEF）基板,接下来对添加银纳米粒子前后的拉曼和荧光信号分别进行对比,进一步研究了微通道中不同浓度银纳米粒子对SYBR GREEN I的拉曼和荧光信号增强效果。添加银纳米粒子后,表面增强拉曼（SERS）实验的增强因子为3.5×10³,添加银纳米粒子的样品的荧光信号强度与不含银纳米粒子样品的荧光信号强度相比,约增加了1倍。结果表明,在微通道中检测SYBR Green I时通过增加银纳米粒子显著地增强了拉曼和荧光信号,这种方法可以用在以SYBR GreenⅠ做染料的微流控芯片检测技术中。     

荧光/表面增强拉曼散射双模式纳米光学探针的构建及性能研究

提出一种新型的荧光及表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）双模式光学纳米探针。首先,通过再沉淀-包覆法合成二氧化硅包覆香豆素6的纳米颗粒,再在二氧化硅表面静电吸附多聚赖氨酸分子形成包覆层,随后通过原位还原的方法在多聚赖氨酸壳层复合银纳米颗粒,最后在银纳米颗粒表面吸附拉曼分子即形成双模式纳米探针。该探针通过二氧化硅包覆的荧光分子产生荧光信号,以多聚赖氨酸表面的银纳米颗粒作为SERS增强基底,利用拉曼分子获得SERS信号,实现了荧光及SERS双模式成像。荧光与表面增强拉曼散射相结合的双模式分析技术可同时发挥二者的优点,提高成像的分辨率和灵敏度,在生物医学领域具有重要的应用价值。     

Fluorescence of metal complexes of 8-hydroxyquinoline derivatives in aqueous micellar media

The fluorescence characteristics of 8-hydroxyquinoline derivative complexes of A1(III), Ga(III), In(III), Zn(II), and Be(II) in differently charged micellar media are reported. For most of the chelates studied, large increases are observed in micellar media compared with those obtained in hydroorganic solvents. However, some exceptions are observed, of which the low fluorescence of Zn(II) chelates in anionic sodium lauryl sulfate media is the most noticeable.     

Controlling fluorescence emission with split‐ring‐resonator‐based plasmonic metasurfaces

Metasurfaces, which consist of resonant metamaterial elements in the form of two‐dimensional thin planar structures, retain great capabilities in manipulating electromagnetic wave and potential applications in modifying interaction with fluorescent molecules. The metasurfaces with magnetic responses are favorable to weakening fluorescence quenching while less investigated in controlling fluorescence. In this paper, we demonstrate control over fluorescence emission by engineering the magnetic and electric modes in plasmonic metasurfaces consisting of 45‐nm‐thick gold split‐ring‐resonators (SRRs). The fluorescence emission exhibits an enhancement factor of ∼18 and is predominantly x‐polarized with assistance of the magnetic mode excited by oblique incidence with an x‐polarized electric field. The magnetic and electric modes excited by oblique incidence with a y‐polarized electric field contribute to the rotation of emission polarization with respect to the incident polarization. The results demonstrate manipulating the interaction of fluorescent emitters with different resonant modes of the SRR‐based metasurface at the nanoscale by the polarization of incident light, providing potential applications of metasurfaces in a wide variety of areas, including optical nanosources, fluorescence spectroscopy and compact biosensors.

     

Enhanced Ratiometric pH Sensing Using SNAFL-2 on Silver Island Films: Metal-enhanced Fluorescence Sensing

We have explored the opportunities for enhanced ratiometric pH sensing using the well-known carboxy seminaphthofluorescein (SNAFL-2) and silver island films (SiFs). Our results show that the metallic surfaces can provide up to a 40-fold increase in probe fluorescence intensity as compared to nonmetallic surfaces with the same probe coverage. However, while the S/N is significantly better for pH sensing, the emission wavelength ratiometric values are similar to that obtained in solution, due to the fact that the emission of both the acidic and basic forms of the probe are enhanced to similar extents. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of enhanced ratiometric fluorescence sensing on metallic surfaces.     

Enhanced photoluminescence of conjugated polymer thin films on nanostructured silver

Photoluminescence of a conjugated polymer in the presence of surface plasmons on metallic nanoparticles is studied. A layered device structure was constructed that enabled control over nanoparticle diameter and separation between the polymer and nanoparticles layers. The dependence of the surface plasmon evanescent field and energy transfer has been investigated with the largest enhancement in photoluminescence observed at a 40 nm distance separation between the fluorophore and the surface plasmon. A spectrum of surface plasmon resonances ranging from the emission to the absorption energies of the conjugated polymer revealed largest enhancements when the resonance was tuned to the conjugated polymer emission energy. At peak photoluminescence the maximum photoluminescent enhancement was found to be 5.6 times of the photoluminescence of the control structure and the total integrated enhancement was 5.9 times.     

机械抛光铜金属表面对罗丹明的荧光增强效应

应用激光光谱学方法,研究了铜表面Rh6G分子的荧光增强效应对于金属衬底表面所形成的氧化层的依赖关系,探索了由于空气氧化而形成的氧化层在表面荧光增强效应中的重要意义和作用机理.实验采用罗丹明6G荧光探针分子,在532 nm连续光激发下,研究机械抛光铜金属衬底在经历不同氧化时间,对吸附其表面的Rh6G分子的荧光增强效果.研究结果表明,适当控制金属样品表面的氧化时间,金属铜表面对若丹明分子的荧光发射表现出猝灭和增强效应.金属氧化层起到了隔离荧光分子与金属表面的作用,减弱了由于激发态荧光分子向金属转移非辐射能量和在金属表面诱导反向偶极子而产生的荧光猝灭效应,从而提高了纯金属铜表面荧光增强辐射行为.因此在微纳金属衬底的荧光增强效应研究中,采用适当的实验手段,精确控制隔离层间距,是表面增强光谱获取的重要途径之一.