Reconstructing Sub-cellular Structure using Plasmonic Metamaterials

摘要： 用等离子体超材料重建亚细胞结构 解析细胞内结构的能力为破译提供了新的机会 复杂的化学相互作用，用于将细胞器的组成和组织与 用于观察细胞被病毒感染的情况。这个项目描述了 等离子体超材料如何在三维(3D)中分解亚细胞结构， 次衍射分辨率，且无需使用荧光标签。这些新类型的金属 纳米结构可以与标准光学显微镜集成在一起。因为那道光 从带有有限数量的纳米孔的金属膜(一个补丁)周期性地出现 在3D调制下，这些等离子体超材料可以用来确定 像细胞一样的厚重、透明的样本。与传统光学中不同的是，透镜位于 远离物体，这些平面金属透镜结构可以直接在玻璃上建造 封面纸条。因此，由于光不会事先分散，因此可以获得更高的分辨率 在撞击样本之前或之后。我们建议研究两类等离子体激元 用于细胞的无标记成像的结构：(1)带有微尺度补片的穿孔金膜 纳米尺度的孔，可以通过解构干涉图案来实现3D成像 来自结构化的光束和(2)金锥体粒子，它可以用来识别 特定生物标志物在细胞内的空间位置。

ABSTRACT: Reconstructing Sub-Cellular Structure with Plasmonic Metamaterials The ability to resolve intracellular structure has opened new opportunities for deciphering complex chemical interactions, for relating the composition and organization of organelles to cellular processes, and for observing the infection of cells by viruses. This project describes how plasmonic metamaterials can resolve sub-cellular structure in three dimensions (3D), with sub-diffraction resolution, and without the use of fluorescent labels. These new types of metal nanostructures can be integrated with standard optical microscopes. Because the light that emerges from a metal film perforated with a finite number of nanoholes (a patch) is periodically modulated in 3D, these plasmonic metamaterials can be used for determining the structure of thick, transparent samples like cells. Unlike in conventional optics, where lenses are situated far from the object, these planar metallic lens structures can be constructed directly on glass coverslips. Hence, higher resolution can be achieved because the light does not disperse prior to or after impinging on the sample. We propose to investigate two classes of plasmonic structures for the label-free imaging of cells: (1) gold films perforated with microscale patches of nanoscale holes, which can achieve 3D imaging by deconstructing interference patterns from structured beams of light and (2) gold pyramidal particles, which can be used to identify the spatial locations of specific biomarkers within cells.