Introducing Nanoapertures
My present research is focused on the implementation of nanometric structures to enhance the contrasts (fluorescence, Raman) in optical microscopy. Two goals are aimed:
1- Fundamental Nanophotonics : understand the influence of nanometric structures on the optical emission.
2- Applied Biophotonics : use the nanodevices to improve existing biophotonic techniques (confocal microscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy FCS, fluorescence resonance energy transfer FRET)
I’m presently studying the implementation of single apertures milled in an opaque metallic film. These apertures have dimensions below the optical wavelength (range 100-500 nanometers, which is 100 times smaller than a hair diameter).
We see two funny physical effects :
1- The apertures confine the light to volumes in the attoliter range (10^-18L, or 0.001 micron cube)
2- The fluorescence brightness can be enhanced up to 15 fold : we collect 15 times more photons per single molecule inside the aperture (as compared to a conventional solution).
>>> More information on the MOSAIC website.
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