Novel Sensors for Detecting Single Nanoparticles/Molecules

摘要标题：用于检测单个纳米颗粒/分子的新型传感器非技术描述：单个纳米颗粒/分子的灵敏检测对于从医学诊断、药物发现、安全筛选到环境科学等许多重要应用都是必不可少的。该项目的目标是探索和开发一种新的粒子和分子传感方法，这种方法有可能提供前所未有的传感分辨率，大大超过目前的技术水平。通过设计微/纳米光子结构来产生有趣的机制来放大和转导传感信号，并抑制影响光学传感的噪声，PI的小组旨在开辟一条对单纳米粒子和生物分子的超灵敏、高速、无标签检测的变变性研究途径，这对广泛的生物医学、环境和安全应用具有巨大的重要性。该研究如果成功，预计将对分子传感本身以外的广泛传感领域产生深远影响，显著推进受光子器件中基本热噪声影响的光学频率计量和精密测量。基础研究成果和设备创新将通过发表论文向更广泛的研究界传播；研究成果也将纳入罗彻斯特大学PI提供的课程。该研究将培养纳米光子学、非线性光学、光力学和光学传感等跨学科领域的研究生和本科生。通过外展计划，该项目还将有助于促进K-12学生的兴趣和参与，并扩大代表性不足群体的参与。技术描述：提出的研究旨在探索基于微/纳米光子器件内部新颖有趣的光物质相互作用机制的纳米粒子和生物分子传感，这些机制能够显着放大和转导传感信号，并能够显着抑制限制传统光学传感的基本噪声。综合效应导致了一种新的传感方法，具有潜在的前所未有的传感分辨率。凭借在纳米光子器件的物理和工程方面的强大专业知识，PI小组计划在三年的努力中开展探索性研究，研究这种新型传感方法的检测极限的基础物理学，探索所提出的检测单个纳米粒子和单个生物分子的最终传感分辨率，找到可以实现这种分辨率的操作条件。在完全集成的平台上开发能够提供最佳传感性能的新型纳米光子器件结构，并将其应用于各种传感应用。初步结果显示，实现这些目标大有希望。

Abstract Title: Novel Sensors for Detecting Single Nanoparticles/MoleculesNon-Technical Description: Sensitive detection of a single nanoparticle/molecule is essential for many important applications ranging from medical diagnostics, drug discovery, security screening, to environmental science. The objective of this project is to explore and develop a novel approach for particle and molecule sensing that potentially offers unprecedented sensing resolution significantly beyond current state of the art. By engineering micro/nano-photonic structures to produce intriguing mechanisms to amplify and transduce the sensing signal, and to suppress the noises impacting optical sensing, the PI's group aim to open up a transformative research avenue towards ultra-sensitive, high-speed, label-free detection of single nanoparticles and biomolecules that is of immense importance for broad biomedical, environmental, and security applications. The proposed research, if successful, is expected to have profound impact on broad sensing areas beyond the molecule sensing itself, significantly advancing optical frequency metrology and precision measurement that are impacted by fundamental thermal noises in photonic devices. Fundamental research findings and device innovations will be disseminated to the broader research communities through published papers; the research outcomes will be also incorporated into the courses offered by the PI at the University of Rochester. The proposed research would result in training graduate students and undergraduate students in the diverse interdisciplinary areas of nanophotonics, nonlinear optics, optomechanics, and optical sensing. Through the outreach programs, this project will also help promote the interests and participations of K-12 students, and broaden the participations from underrepresented groups. Technical Description: The proposed research aims to explore nanoparticle and biomolecule sensing based upon novel intriguing light-matter interaction mechanisms inside micro/nano-photonic devices that are able to significantly amplify and transduce the sensing signal and that are able to suppress dramatically the fundamental noises limiting conventional optical sensing. The combined effect leads to a novel sensing methodology with potentially unprecedented sensing resolution. With strong expertise in both the physics and engineering of nanophotonic devices, the PI's group plan to carry out explorative research within the three-year effort, to study the fundamental physics regarding the detection limit of this novel sensing approach, to explore the ultimate sensing resolution offered by the proposed approach for detecting single nanoparticles and single biomolecules, to find the operation conditions that can achieve such resolution, to develop novel nanophotonic device structures on fully integrated platform that are able to provide optimal sensing performance, and to apply them for diverse sensing applications. The preliminary results have shown great promise to achieve these goals.