title: Localized surface plasmon resonance with five-branched gold nanostars in a plastic optical fiber for bio-chemical sensor implementation.
abstract: In this paper a refractive index sensor based on localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in a Plastic Optical Fiber (POF), is presented and experimentally tested. LSPR is achieved exploiting five-branched gold nanostars (GNS) obtained using Triton X-100 in a seed-growth synthesis. They have the uncommon feature of three localized surface plasmon resonances. The strongest LSPRs fall in two ranges, one in the 600-900 nm range (LSPR 2) and the other one in the 1,100-1,600 nm range (LSPR 3), both sensible to refractive index changes. Anyway, due to the extremely strong attenuation (>10(2) dB/m) of the employed POF in the 1,100-1,600 nm range, only LSPR 2 will be exploited for refractive index change measurements, useful for bio-chemical sensing applications, as a proof of principle of the possibility of realizing a compact, low cost and easy-to-use GNS based device.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, Second University of Naples, via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy. nunzio.cennamo@unina2.it.
authors.forename: Nunzio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cennamo
authors.forename: Girolamo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: D'Agostino
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Donà
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dacarro
authors.forename: Piersandro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pallavicini
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pesavento
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zeni
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D055100:Optical Fibers; D010969:Plastics; D012031:Refractometry; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics; D012997:Solvents; D006046:Gold