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Dumbbell gold nanoparticle dimer antennas with advanced optical properties
2018, Herrmann, Janning F., Höppener, Christiane
Plasmonic nanoantennas have found broad applications in the fields of photovoltaics, electroluminescence, non-linear optics and for plasmon enhanced spectroscopy and microscopy. Of particular interest are fundamental limitations beyond the dipolar approximation limit. We introduce asymmetric gold nanoparticle antennas (AuNPs) with improved optical near-field properties based on the formation of sub-nanometer size gaps, which are suitable for studying matter with high-resolution and single molecule sensitivity. These dumbbell antennas are characterized in regard to their far-field and near-field properties and are compared to similar dimer and trimer antennas with larger gap sizes. The tailoring of the gap size down to sub-nanometer length scales is based on the integration of rigid macrocyclic cucurbituril molecules. Stable dimer antennas are formed with an improved ratio of the electromagnetic field enhancement and confinement. This ratio, taken as a measure of the performance of an antenna, can even exceed that exhibited by trimer AuNP antennas composed of comparable building blocks with larger gap sizes. Fluctuations in the far-field and near-field properties are observed, which are likely caused by distinct deviations of the gap geometry arising from the faceted structure of the applied colloidal AuNPs.
On the stability of microwave-fabricated SERS substrates - chemical and morphological considerations
2021, Wang, Limin, Womiloju, Aisha Adebola, Höppener, Christiane, Schubert, Ulrich Sigmar, Hoeppener, Stephanie
The stability of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates in different organic solvents and different buffer solutions was investigated. SERS substrates were fabricated by a microwave-assisted synthesis approach and the morphological as well as chemical changes of the SERS substrates were studied. It was demonstrated that the SERS substrates treated with methanol, ethanol, or N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) were comparable and showed overall good stability and did not show severe morphological changes or a strong decrease in their Raman activity. Toluene treatment resulted in a strong decrease in the Raman activity whereas dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) treatment completely preserved or even slightly improved the Raman enhancement capabilities. SERS substrates immersed into phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solutions were observed to be rather instable in low and neutral pH buffer solutions. Other buffer systems showed less severe influences on the SERS activity of the substrates and a carbonate buffer at pH 10 was found to even improve SERS performance. This study represents a guideline on the stability of microwave-fabricated SERS substrates or other SERS substrates consisting of non-stabilized silver nanoparticles for the application of different organic solvents and buffer solutions.
A wideband cryogenic microwave low-noise amplifier
2020, Ivanov, Boris I., Volkhin, Dmitri I., Novikov, Ilya L., Pitsun, Dmitri K., Moskalev, Dmitri O., Rodionov, Ilya A., Il'ichev, Evgeni, Vostretsov, Aleksey G.
A broadband low-noise four-stage high-electron-mobility transistor amplifier was designed and characterized in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator at the 3.8 K temperature stage. The obtained power dissipation of the amplifier is below 20 mW. In the frequency range from 6 to 12 GHz its gain exceeds 30 dB. The equivalent noise temperature of the amplifier is below 6 K for the presented frequency range. The amplifier is applicable for any type of cryogenic microwave measurements. As an example we demonstrate here the characterization of the superconducting X-mon qubit coupled to an on-chip coplanar waveguide resonator. ©2020 Ivanov et al.; licensee Beilstein-Institut.License and terms: see end of document.
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of cell lysates mixed with silver nanoparticles for tumor classification
2017, Hassoun, Mohamed, Schie, Iwan W., Tolstik, Tatiana, Stanca, Sarmiza E., Krafft, Christoph, Popp, Jürgen
The throughput of spontaneous Raman spectroscopy for cell identification applications is limited to the range of one cell per second because of the relatively low sensitivity. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a widespread way to amplify the intensity of Raman signals by several orders of magnitude and, consequently, to improve the sensitivity and throughput. SERS protocols using immuno-functionalized nanoparticles turned out to be challenging for cell identification because they require complex preparation procedures. Here, a new SERS strategy is presented for cell classification using non-functionalized silver nanoparticles and potassium chloride to induce aggregation. To demonstrate the principle, cell lysates were prepared by ultrasonication that disrupts the cell membrane and enables interaction of released cellular biomolecules to nanoparticles. This approach was applied to distinguish four cell lines – Capan-1, HepG2, Sk-Hep1 and MCF-7 – using SERS at 785 nm excitation. Six independent batches were prepared per cell line to check the reproducibility. Principal component analysis was applied for data reduction and assessment of spectral variations that were assigned to proteins, nucleotides and carbohydrates. Four principal components were selected as input for classification models based on support vector machines. Leave-three-batches-out cross validation recognized four cell lines with sensitivities, specificities and accuracies above 96%. We conclude that this reproducible and specific SERS approach offers prospects for cell identification using easily preparable silver nanoparticles.