title: Photoactivated capture molecule immobilization in plasmonic nanoapertures in the ultraviolet.
abstract: We demonstrate a photoactivated surface coupling scheme for achieving spatial overlap between biomolecules of interest and optical near field excitation. Using aluminium nanoapertures, we obtained increased coupling efficiency of biotinylated capture probe oligos to the photoactivated surface due to ~3× nanoaperture enhancement of UV light. We further validate DNA sensor functionality via the hybridization of Cy-5 labeled target oligos, with up to 8× fluorescence enhancement obtained from a commercial microarray scanner. This generic photoimmobilization strategy is an essential step to realizing miniaturized plasmon enhanced detection arrays by virtue of localizing capture molecules to the region of plasmonic enhancement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Utah, 50 South Central campus Drive, Room 3280, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Attavar
authors.forename: Mohit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diwekar
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Blair