Nanofabrication and plasma polymerization assisted surface modification of a transducer based on localized surface plasmon resonance of gold nanostructure arrays for biosensor applications

The nanofabrication and surface modification of a transducer based on localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of gold nanostructure arrays for biosensing was studied. We used electron beam lithography for the nanopatterning technique, which let us choose LSPR sensor properties by providing immense control over nanostructural geometry. A critical step in the utilization of this transducer is to form a selective biolayer over the gold nanostructures. We applied plasma polymerization and wet chemistry techniques for ethylenediamine (EDA) modification and glutaraldehyde immobilization as intermediate layers, respectively. The gold nanostructure arrays were primarily modified using EDA in order to activate the surface with amine groups that are cross-linked with later added avidin molecules by the help of glutaraldhyde layer residing in between. The success of plasma polymerization was validated with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. As a last step, we introduced biotin to the surface (biotin has a high affinity for avidin). We were able to detect the LSPR resonance wavelength shift in the transmission spectra at each step of modification, including the avidin-biotin interaction, which acts as a model for specific molecule detection using LSPR. © 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)