Toward Plasmonic Neural Probes: SERS Detection of Neurotransmitters through Gold-Nanoislands-Decorated Tapered Optical Fibers with Sub-10 nm Gaps.
Integration of plasmonic nanostructures with fiber-optics-based neural probes enables label-free detection of molecular fingerprints via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and it represents a fascinating technological horizon to investigate brain function. However, developing neuroplasmonic...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) |
| Repositório: | Repisalud |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repisalud.isciii.es:20.500.12105/18931 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12105/18931 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Nanostructures Metal Nanoparticles Optical Fibers Gold Spectrum Analysis, Raman Neurotransmitter Agents |
| Resumo: | Integration of plasmonic nanostructures with fiber-optics-based neural probes enables label-free detection of molecular fingerprints via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and it represents a fascinating technological horizon to investigate brain function. However, developing neuroplasmonic probes that can interface with deep brain regions with minimal invasiveness while providing the sensitivity to detect biomolecular signatures in a physiological environment is challenging, in particular because the same waveguide must be employed for both delivering excitation light and collecting the resulting scattered photons. Here, a SERS-active neural probe based on a tapered optical fiber (TF) decorated with gold nanoislands (NIs) that can detect neurotransmitters down to the micromolar range is presented. To do this, a novel, nonplanar repeated dewetting technique to fabricate gold NIs with sub-10 nm gaps, uniformly distributed on the wide (square millimeter scale in surface area), highly curved surface of TF is developed. It is experimentally and numerically shown that the amplified broadband near-field enhancement of the high-density NIs layer allows for achieving a limit of detection in aqueous solution of 10-7 m for rhodamine 6G and 10-5 m for serotonin and dopamine through SERS at near-infrared wavelengths. The NIs-TF technology is envisioned as a first step toward the unexplored frontier of in vivo label-free plasmonic neural interfaces. |
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