Jerome Wenger NanoBioPhotonics

Following our video series on Fresnel-Arago experiment's modern version, we have relased an arXiv paper describing how to mount the setup, prepare the sample and perform a selection of experiments. 

Many concepts of physical optics can be visually illustrated on a relatively simple optical setup in a table-top format, not requiring any very specific equipment. Diffraction, interferences, speckle, image formation, Fourier optics, strioscopy are among the many themes to be shown using this demonstration system.

Is there light in the center of a shadow from a black disk? What is the shadow of a hole milled in an opaque screen? Can adding light to light create darkness?

The Institut Fresnel releases a series of short videos answering various questions about light and optics, providing an illustration of physical optics concepts such as diffraction, interferences, imaging and microscopy.

See our official trailer below (sounds very pro like that). More videos on the Institut Fresnel youtube channel.

Institut Fresnel is organizing a special day to celebrate this anniversary: https://www.fresnel.fr/bicentenaire-fresnel/

Chaired by Patrice Genevet and co-chaired by Jerome Wenger, the Nanophotonics and Micro/Nano Optics International Conference 2020 is proudly featuring an outstanding list of 12 outstanding invited speakers. The conference attendance is limited to 250 persons, so check the NANOP 2020 conference website and apply enough in advance to secure your participation.

Detecting proteins in the UV range is appealing to take advantage of their natural tryptophan fluorescence and rule out all the issues related with external fluorescence labelling. However, proteins feature a much lower fluorescence brightness than conventional fluorescent dyes. This is where nanophotonics can improve the detection sensitivity.

In a recent Nano Letter article, we report the first demonstration of single protein UV fluorescence enhancement using aluminum zero-mode waveguides nanoapertures. Dedicated strategies were developed to overcome the technical challenges of working in the UV range. This involves optimizing the UV aluminum nanostructures fabrication, counteracting the metal photocorrosion, dealing with the limited photostability of proteins and developing robust analysis tools to extract useful information out of noisy traces.

This unprecedented detection of single protein fluorescence with UV plasmonics paves the way for interrogating individual proteins in their native state and at physiological concentrations.

Also freely available on ArXiv 1909.08227