Nanofluidics Meets Plasmonics: Flow-Through Surface-Based Sensing

Nanostructures exhibit both nanofluidic and nanophotonic phenomena that can be exploited in sensing applications. In the case of nanohole arrays, the role of surface plasmons on resonant transmission motivates their application as surface-based biosensors. Research to date, however, has focused on dead-ended (or ‘blind’) holes, and therefore failed to harness the benefits of nanoconfined transport combined with plasmonic sensing. A flow-through nanohole array format presented here enables biomarker sieving and rapid transport of reactants to the sensing surface. Proof of concept operation is demonstrated and compared with previous methods. The various transport mechanisms are characterized with the aim to utilize the metallic plasmonic nanostructure as an active element in concentrating as well as detecting analytes. The invited presentation will provide an overview of all our experimental, computational and analytical work in this area. This paper is focused on the analysis and evaluation of flow-through nanohole arrays for analyte sensing.