Abstract
Upconversion luminescence (UCL) has great potential for highly sensitive biosensing due to its unique wavelength shift properties. The main limitation of UCL is its low quantum efficiency, which is typically compensated using low-noise detectors and high-intensity excitation. In this work, we demonstrate surface plasmon polariton (SPP)-enhanced UCL for biosensing applications. SPPs are excited by using a gold grating. The gold grating is optimized to match the SPP resonance with the absorption wavelength of upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs). Functionalized UCNPs conjugated with antibodies are immobilized on the surface of the fabricated gold grating. We achieve an UCL enhancement up to 65 times at low excitation power density. This enhancement results from the increase in the absorption cross section of UCNPs caused by the SPP coupling on the grating surface. Computationally, we investigated a slight quenching effect in the emission process with UCNPs near gold surfaces. The experimental observations were in good agreement with the simulation results. The work enables UCL-based assays with reduced excitation intensity that are needed, for example, in scanning-free imaging.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Nanophotonics |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 21 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Aug 2024 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
Research funding: This work was supported by the Research Council of Finland, Printed intelligence infrastructure funding, decision 358621. The work is part of the Research Council of Finland Flagship Programme, Photonics Research and Innovation (PREIN), decisions 346545 and 346518.
Keywords
- absorption enhancement
- biosensing
- gold grating
- surface plasmon polariton
- upconversion luminescence