Byun, Kyung Min

Mitochondria are organelles that are readily susceptible to temperature elevation. We selectively delivered a coumarin-based fluorescent iron oxide nanoparticle, Mito-CIO, to the mitochondria. Upon 740 nm laser irradiation, the intracellular temperature of HeLa cells was elevated by 2.1 °C within 5 min when using Mito-CIO, and the treatment resulted in better hyperthermia and a more elevated cytotoxicity than HeLa cells treated with coumarin iron oxide (CIO), which was missing the mitochondrial

An advanced optical activation of neural tissues is demonstrated using pulsed infrared light and plasmonic gold nanorods. Photothermal effect localized in plasma membrane triggers action potentials of in vivo neural tissues. Compared with conventional infrared stimulation, the suggested method can increase a neural responsivity and lower a threshold stimulation level significantly, thereby reducing a requisite radiant exposure and the concern of tissue damage.

We have experimentally confirmed sensitivity enhancement of a nanowire-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor structure. Gold nanowires with periods of 200 and 500 nm were fabricated, respectively, by electron-beam and interference lithography on a gold/SF10 substrate. Sensitivity enhancement was measured to be 44% compared with a conventional thin-film-based SPR structure for nanowires of 200 nm period and 31% for 500 nm when evaluated using ethanol at a varied concentration. This result

In this study, we investigated the sensitivity enhancement in nanowire-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors using rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA). The enhancement, enabled by the excitation of localized surface plasmons in gold nanowires, offers improved performance in sensitivity as well as in reproducibility and customizability. Calculation results found that a T-profile provides higher sensitivity than an inverse T-profile in general and also determined optimum design parame

We investigated grating-coupled transmission-type surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for sensing applications. In the transmission-type SPR structure, propagating surface plasmons are outcoupled to radiation modes by dielectric and metallic gratings on a metal film. The results calculated in air and water suggest that the proposed structures present extremely linear sensing characteristics. In terms of a figure of merit, a metallic grating-based structure performs 5.4 and 3.7 times better than that

A localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensor using surface relief nanostructures was investigated to evaluate the importance of target localization on the sensitivity enhancement. The LSPR device was modeled as periodic metallic nanowires with a square profile on a gold film and the target as a self-assembled monolayer in buffer solution. The numerical results using rigorous coupled-wave analysis and the finite-difference time domain method demonstrated localized plasmonic fields induc

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors based on a silver film suffer from signal degradation due to silver oxidation in aqueous sensing environments. To overcome this limitation, we fabricated the planar plasmonic substrate employing an atomic MoS2 layer on a silver surface. Successful production of a large-area MoS2 monolayer blocks the penetration of oxygen and water molecules. In addition, we theoretically and experimentally found that MoS2 layer on the silver film can improve the SPR sensit

A nanowire-mediated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging is numerically investigated for enhanced sensitivity. The results calculated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis present that interplays between localized surface plasmons and surface plasmon polaritons contribute to sensitivity enhancement. Compared to conventional thin film-based SPR imaging measurement, an optimal nanowire structure can provide sensitivity enhancement by 3.44 times as well as highly linear detection property for quanti

As surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been used to diagnose several respiratory viruses (e.g., influenza A virus subtypes such as H1N1 and the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2), SERS is gaining popularity as a method for diagnosing viruses at the point-of-care. Although the prior and quick diagnosis of respiratory viruses is critical in the outbreak of infectious disease, ELISA, PCR, and RT-PCR have been used to detect respiratory viruses for pandemic control that are limited for point-of-ca

We have investigated the effect of surface roughness on the sensitivity of conventional and nanowire-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors. The theoretical research was conducted using rigorous coupled-wave analysis with Gaussian surface profiles of gold films determined by atomic force microscopy. The results suggest that, when surface roughness ranges near 1 nm, the sensitivity of a conventional SPR system is not significantly affected regardless of the correlation length. For a nan

A novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) detection technique based on the programmed assembly of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and the corresponding change in mobility under external magnetic fields was demonstrated. In this approach, SPIONs act as a magnetophoretic mobility switch undergoing aggregation only in the presence of target analytes. The aggregated SPIONs which were magnetically attracted to a metal film create a layer over the sensor surface with a refractive ind

Plasmonic-based biosensing technologies have been successfully commercialized and applied for monitoring various biomolecular interactions occurring at a sensor surface. In particular, the recent advances in nanofabrication methods and nanoparticle syntheses provide a new route to overcome the limitations of a conventional surface plasmon resonance biosensor, such as detection limit, sensitivity, selectivity, and throughput. In this paper, optical and physical properties of plasmonic nanostructu