Ultra-Broadband Plasmon-Polariton Crystals for Label-Free Single Molecule Detection

该奖项由2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》（公法111-5）资助。0932611 Mohseni生物传感/CBET项目颁发的NSF奖项支持西北大学Hooman Mohseni教授的工作，研究一种新型纳米结构，称为“等离子体-极化子晶体”，并探索在不附加化学标签的情况下检测单分子的可能性。 本研究的主要目标是探索等离子体激元-极化子晶体的独特性质，并实现非常大的光学带宽，超过几个Tera Hertz，以及非常大的Purcel常数。 与依赖于非常大的品质因数来实现高灵敏度的现有光子谐振器和腔不同，所提出的等离子体激元极化子晶体具有小的品质因数，这导致非常大的带宽和光谱指纹感测的可能性。PI计划使用详细的三个-三维电磁模拟，以优化所提出的结构，用于使用常规电介质和金属层的实际实现。 PI还计划使用先进的微米和纳米加工工具制造这种结构。 最后，最重要的光学性能导致的设备带宽和珀塞尔常数的理解将measured.Proposed研究进展的物理快速增长的等离子体器件。 由于传感体积在Zepto-litter范围内，并且在大带宽上具有非常大的腔耦合，所提出的纳米结构可以影响广泛的领域，例如单分子检测，腔量子电动力学和量子点单光子源。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).0932611Mohseni This NSF award by the Biosensing /CBET program supports work by Professor Hooman Mohseni at Northwestern University to study a novel nano-structure called "Plasmon-Polariton Crystal" and to explore the possibility of detecting single molecules without attaching chemical labels to them. The main goal of this research is to explore the unique properties of the Plasmon-Polariton Crystal and achieve a very large optical bandwidth, exceeding several Tera Hertz, as well as a very large Purcel's constant. Unlike the existing photonic resonators and cavities that rely on a very large quality factor to achieve a high sensitivity, the proposed Plasmon Polariton Crystal has a small quality factor that leads to a very large bandwidth and the possibility of spectral fingerprint sensing.Specifically, PI plans to use detailed three-dimensional electromagnetic simulations to optimize the proposed structure for a practical realization using conventional dielectric and metal layers. PI also plans to fabricate such structures using advanced micro and nano-processing tools. Finally, the most important optical properties leading to an understanding of the device bandwidth and Purcell constant will be measured.Proposed research advances the physics of rapidly growing plasmonic devices. With a sensing volume in the Zepto-litter range, and a very large cavity coupling over large bandwidth, the proposed nano-structure could impact a wide range of fields such as single-molecule detection, cavity quantum electrodynamics, and quantum dot single-photon sources.