Aluminum Nanoholes for Optical Biosensing

Sub-wavelength diameter holes in thin metal layers can exhibit remarkable optical features that make them highly suitable for (bio)sensing applications. Either as efficient light scattering centers for surface plasmon excitation or metal-clad optical waveguides, they are able to form strongly localized optical fields that can effectively interact with biomolecules and/or nanoparticles on the nanoscale. As the metal of choice, aluminum exhibits good optical and electrical properties, is easy to manufacture and process and, unlike gold and silver, its low cost makes it very promising for commercial applications. However, aluminum has been scarcely used for biosensing purposes due to corrosion and pitting issues. In this short review, we show our recent achievements on aluminum nanohole platforms for (bio)sensing. These include a method to circumvent aluminum degradation—which has been successfully applied to the demonstration of aluminum nanohole array (NHA) immunosensors based on both, glass and polycarbonate compact discs supports—the use of aluminum nanoholes operating as optical waveguides for synthesizing submicron-sized molecularly imprinted polymers by local photopolymerization, and a technique for fabricating transferable aluminum NHAs onto flexible pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes, which could facilitate the development of a wearable technology based on aluminum NHAs.

[1]  Mathieu Foquet,et al.  Improved fabrication of zero-mode waveguides for single-molecule detection , 2008 .

[2]  Sang‐Hyun Oh,et al.  Engineering metallic nanostructures for plasmonics and nanophotonics , 2012, Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society.

[3]  Single step patterning of molecularly imprinted polymers for large scale fabrication of microbiochips. , 2009, Lab on a chip.

[4]  Peter Nordlander,et al.  Aluminum for plasmonics. , 2014, ACS nano.

[5]  Carlos Escobedo,et al.  On-chip nanohole array based sensing: a review. , 2013, Lab on a chip.

[6]  Sang‐Hyun Oh,et al.  Fabrication of Smooth Patterned Structures of Refractory Metals, Semiconductors, and Oxides via Template Stripping , 2013, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[7]  Beomjoon Kim,et al.  Transfer of thin Au films to polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with reliable bonding using (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) as a molecular adhesive , 2013 .

[8]  Michael C. McAlpine,et al.  Highly ordered nanowire arrays on plastic substrates for ultrasensitive flexible chemical sensors. , 2007, Nature materials.

[9]  Víctor Canalejas-Tejero,et al.  Compact discs as versatile cost-effective substrates for releasable nanopatterned aluminium films. , 2015, Nanoscale.

[10]  Jing Zhao,et al.  Ultrastable substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: Al2O3 overlayers fabricated by atomic layer deposition yield improved anthrax biomarker detection. , 2006, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[11]  O. Soppera,et al.  Photopolymerization and photostructuring of molecularly imprinted polymers for sensor applications , 2012 .

[12]  Aurel Ymeti,et al.  Development of a multichannel integrated interferometer immunosensor , 2002 .

[13]  M. Ishida,et al.  Surface stress sensor using MEMS-based Fabry–Perot interferometer for label-free biosensing , 2013 .

[14]  O. Soppera,et al.  Ultrathin Selective Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microdots Obtained by Evanescent Wave Photopolymerization , 2011 .

[15]  Andre K. Geim,et al.  Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films , 2004, Science.

[16]  Jeffrey N. Anker,et al.  Biosensing with plasmonic nanosensors. , 2008, Nature materials.

[17]  Graham T. Reed,et al.  Silicon Photonics: The State of the Art , 2008 .

[18]  D. Cumming,et al.  Transfer Printing of Nanoplasmonic Devices onto Flexible Polymer Substrates from a Rigid Stamp , 2012, Plasmonics.

[19]  David J. Norris,et al.  Linewidth‐Optimized Extraordinary Optical Transmission in Water with Template‐Stripped Metallic Nanohole Arrays , 2012 .

[20]  Prashant Nagpal,et al.  Template-stripped smooth Ag nanohole arrays with silica shells for surface plasmon resonance biosensing. , 2011, ACS nano.

[21]  Guo-Qiang Lo,et al.  Highly sensitive Mach–Zehnder interferometer biosensor based on silicon nitride slot waveguide , 2013 .

[22]  C. Barrios,et al.  Molecular recognition with nanostructures fabricated by photopolymerization within metallic subwavelength apertures. , 2014, Nanoscale.

[23]  Jiming Bao,et al.  Transmissive Nanohole Arrays for Massively-Parallel Optical Biosensing , 2014, ACS photonics.

[24]  Sang‐Hyun Oh,et al.  Ultrasmooth Patterned Metals for Plasmonics and Metamaterials , 2009, Science.

[25]  M. J. Roberts,et al.  Functional Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microstructures Fabricated Using Microstereolithography , 2003 .

[26]  Carlos Angulo Barrios,et al.  Integrated microring resonator sensor arrays for labs-on-chips , 2012, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.

[27]  S. Turner,et al.  Zero-Mode Waveguides for Single-Molecule Analysis at High Concentrations , 2003, Science.

[28]  John A Rogers,et al.  Interfacial chemistries for nanoscale transfer printing. , 2002, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[29]  F. Navarro-Villoslada,et al.  Cross-linkable linear copolymer with double functionality: resist for electron beam nanolithography and molecular imprinting , 2014 .

[30]  L. Ye,et al.  Molecularly imprinted nanostructures by nanoimprint lithography. , 2010, The Analyst.

[31]  R. Puchades,et al.  Aluminum Nanohole Arrays Fabricated on Polycarbonate for Compact Disc-Based Label-Free Optical Biosensing , 2014, Plasmonics.

[32]  Functional Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microstructures Fabricated Using Microstereolithographic Techniques , 2002 .

[33]  Andrea Di Falco,et al.  Slotted Photonic Crystal Sensors , 2013, Sensors.

[34]  J. Brugger,et al.  Inexpensive and fast wafer-scale fabrication of nanohole arrays in thin gold films for plasmonics , 2010, Nanotechnology.

[35]  Aram Amassian,et al.  Sub-15-nm patterning of asymmetric metal electrodes and devices by adhesion lithography , 2014, Nature Communications.

[36]  Heung Cho Ko,et al.  A hemispherical electronic eye camera based on compressible silicon optoelectronics , 2008, Nature.

[37]  Á. Maquieira.  Compact Discs Technology for Clinical Analysis of Drugs , 2012 .

[38]  Stephen Gray,et al.  Surface plasmon generation and light transmission by isolated nanoholes and arrays of nanoholes in thin metal films. , 2005, Optics express.

[39]  Nemanya Sedoglavich,et al.  Gold nanohole array substrates as immunobiosensors. , 2008, Analytical chemistry.

[40]  K Mosbach,et al.  Molecular Imprinting , 1994, Trends in biochemical sciences.

[41]  Koray Aydin,et al.  Highly strained compliant optical metamaterials with large frequency tunability. , 2010, Nano letters.

[42]  M. Dokmeci,et al.  Flexible Plasmonics on Unconventional and Nonplanar Substrates , 2011, Advanced materials.

[43]  Matthew C. George,et al.  Wafer-scale aluminum nano-plasmonics , 2014, Optics & Photonics - NanoScience + Engineering.

[44]  Formation of Au nano-patterns on various substrates using simplified nano-transfer printing method , 2008 .

[45]  Jae-Young Choi,et al.  Separation of metallic and semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube arrays by "scotch tape". , 2011, Angewandte Chemie.

[46]  Alyssa Bellingham,et al.  Passivated aluminum nanohole arrays for label-free biosensing applications. , 2014, ACS applied materials & interfaces.