SGER: Investigation of Plasmonic Crystal Based Nanostructures for Biomolecule Detection.

目的：本SGER提案的目的是研究等离子体晶体中的非凡传输效应，为定量、特异性和高通量的生物分子检测开发全新的检测平台。智力优势：非凡的传输效应已被建议用于各种应用，从传感到近场光学和光电子学。但是，其潜在的物理机制尚不清楚。在这个提议中，PI将研究效应的起源，并专注于工程新的等离子体晶体结构，可以支持传播和局部等离子体。特别是，纳米孔径的形状效应将在强场增强和大等离子体共振位移中进行数值和实验研究。这些结构将通过使用各种不同大小的生物分子模型来测试，以确定传感器的度量。表面化学也将优化结构金表面。更广泛的影响：本提案的广泛目标是整合等离子体和纳米光子学概念，以实现新一代生物传感器。PI将通过将新的研究成果反馈到PI目前正在开发的课程中，努力吸引未被充分代表的少数民族学生，并通过与外展项目合作，帮助年轻学生开始科学和技术事业，从而努力将研究与教育结合起来。特别是，PI将继续为波士顿大学现有的以少数民族高中学生为对象的“上进数学与科学”、“暑期路径”等外展项目组织实践活动。

Objective: The objective of this SGER proposal is to investigate extraordinary transmission effect in plasmonic crystals to develop fundamentally new detection platforms for quantitative, specific and high throughput detection of biomolecules. Intellectual Merit: Extraordinary transmission effect has been suggested for various applications ranging from sensing, to near-field optics and optoelectronics. But, its underlying physical mechanism is still not clear. In this proposal the PI will investigate the origin of the effect and focus on engineering new plasmonic crystal structures that can support both propagating and localized plasmons. In particular, the shape effect of the nano-apertures will be investigated both numerically and experimentally for strong field enhancement and large plasmon resonance shift. The structures will be tested by using various model biomolecules with different sizes to determine the metric of sensors. Surface chemistry will also be optimized for structured gold surfaces. Broader Impacts: The broad goal of this proposal is to integrate plasmonics and nanophotonics concepts for realization of new generation of biosensors. The PI will put strong effort to integrate research and education by feeding new research results back into the courses that PI is currently developing, trying to attract underrepresented minority students, and by working with outreach programs to help young students start a career in science and technology,. In particular, the PI will continue to organize hand-on activities for existing outreach programs of Boston University such as Upward Bound Math and Science and Summer Pathways that are targeting minority high school students.