Evanescent single-molecule biosensing with quantum-limited precision
Evanescent single-molecule biosensing with quantum-limited precision
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DOI：
10.1038/nphoton.2017.99
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发表时间：
2017-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
35
通讯作者：
Bowen, W. P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mauranyapin, N. P.;Madsen, L. S.;Bowen, W. P.
能够检测和跟踪单个未标记生物分子的传感器是理解生物分子动力学和相互作用以及在其最终检测限下操作的医学诊断的重要工具（1-7）。最近，使用由光学微腔（2，4，5，8）和等离子体共振器（1，6，7）提供的强烈增强的倏逝场已经实现了异常的灵敏度。然而，在高场强下，对生物样本的光损伤变得越来越成问题（9-12）。在这里，我们介绍了一种倏逝波生物传感器，由于光的量子化，它可以在基本的精度极限下工作。这允许光强度降低四个数量级，同时保持最先进的灵敏度。它能够对小至3.5 nm的单个生物分子进行量子噪声限制跟踪，并在较长时间内监测表面分子相互作用。通过实现量子噪声限制的精度，我们的方法提供了一条通往量子增强单分子生物传感器的道路。
Sensors that are able to detect and track single unlabelled biomolecules are an important tool to understand biomolecular dynamics and interactions as well as for medical diagnostics operating at their ultimate detection limits(1-7). Recently, exceptional sensitivity has been achieved using the strongly enhanced evanescent fields provided by optical microcavities(2,4,5,8) and plasmonic resonators(1,6,7). However, at high field intensities, photodamage to the biological specimen becomes increasingly problematic(9-12). Here, we introduce an evanescent biosensor that operates at the fundamental precision limit due to the quantization of light. This allows a four orders of magnitude reduction in optical intensity, while maintaining state-of-the-art sensitivity. It enables quantum noise-limited tracking of single biomolecules as small as 3.5 nm, and monitoring of surface-molecule interactions over extended periods. By achieving quantum noise-limited precision, our approach provides a path towards quantum-enhanced single-molecule biosensors.