All-Dielectric Metasurfaces with High-Fluorescence-Enhancing Capability

All-dielectric metasurfaces are an emerging subfield in photonics. Light-wave manipulation has been extensively explored in these metasurfaces. Although light–matter interaction has also been investigated in these metasurfaces, only a limited number of studies have been reported to date. Here, we employ Si-rod-array metasurfaces to examine their fluorescence-enhancing capability. They were designed to have prominent resonances at the working wavelengths of fluorescent molecules. As a result, we experimentally observed significant fluorescence intensity enhancement, exceeding 1000-fold for a reference substrate that was a non-enhancing, flat Si wafer. Thus, we conclude that the all-dielectric metasurfaces can potentially serve as highly fluorescence-enhancing platforms. Their performance is comparable to the best performance reported for metallic metasurfaces. These results strongly suggest that all-dielectric metasurfaces can contribute to fluorescence-sensing of diverse molecules, including biomolecules.

Ellagic acid–borax fluorescence interaction: application for novel cyclodextrin-borax nanosensors for analyzing ellagic acid in food samples

The food industry needs cheap, fast and sensitive methods. For that reason, the Ellagic acid–Borax–Cyclodextrin complex fluorescence enhancing has been studied.

Fluorescence-enhancing film sensor for highly effective detection of Bi3+ ions based on SiO2 inverse opal photonic crystals

A Rhodamine 6G derivative-infiltrated SiO2 inverse opal was used as a fluorescence-enhancing film sensor for the detection of Bi3+ ions.

Advancing single molecule fluorescence microscopy through the study of dynamic macromolecules

We took a two pronged approach to our investigation of protein synthesis by the ribosome: 1) the generation of a novel fluorescence enhancing substrates 2) the development of a method for the generation of fluorescent ribosome constructs. The development and application of fluorescence based diagnostics platforms for the detection of diseases represents a promising field of research. In collaboration with another lab, we established a method for the generation of a fluorescence enhancing substrate that does not require the use of expensive imaging equipment. During further testing of the fluorescence enhancing substrate with biologically relevant samples, our method proved promising for addition applications. Understanding how and why the ribosome synthesizes protein is important to all living organisms. One known challenge for the study of the ribosome has been the generation of complex samples. We developed a process for the generation of ribosomes that is quicker, easier, and cheaper than existing methods. We then applied our methods for the generation of ribosome constructs to investigate how the ribosome, the molecule responsible for protein synthesis, is coordinated during protein synthesis. Our experiments determined that specific interactions play different roles throughout protein synthesis.