Rapid Ultrasensitive Single Particle Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Using Metallic Nanopores

• Published in: Nano letters 2013-10, Vol.13 (10), p.4602-4609
• Main Authors: Cecchini, Michael P, Wiener, Aeneas, Turek, Vladimir A, Chon, Hyangh, Lee, Sangyeop, Ivanov, Aleksandar P, McComb, David W, Choo, Jaebum, Albrecht, Tim, Maier, Stefan A, Edel, Joshua B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biosensing Techniques; Buildings; Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations); Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Construction; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; DNA - chemistry; DNA - isolation & purification; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Exact sciences and technology; General equipment and techniques; Gold; Gold - chemistry; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Materials science; Membranes; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanopores; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructure; Physics; Porosity; Proteins - chemistry; Proteins - isolation & purification; Raman spectroscopy; Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing; Spectrum Analysis, Raman; Surface and interface electron states; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Temporal resolution; Vibration
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl402108g

Nanopore sensors embedded within thin dielectric membranes have been gaining significant interest due to their single molecule sensitivity and compatibility of detecting a large range of analytes, from DNA and proteins, to small molecules and particles. Building on this concept we utilize a metallic Au solid-state membrane to translocate and rapidly detect single Au nanoparticles (NPs) functionalized with 589 dye molecules using surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy (SERRS). We show that, due to the plasmonic coupling between the Au metallic nanopore surface and the NP, signal intensities are enhanced when probing analyte molecules bound to the NP surface. Although not single molecule, this nanopore sensing scheme benefits from the ability of SERRS to provide rich vibrational information on the analyte, improving on current nanopore-based electrical and optical detection techniques. We show that the full vibrational spectrum of the analyte can be detected with ultrahigh spectral sensitivity and a rapid temporal resolution of 880 μs.