Nano-gap enhanced surface plasmon resonant gratings for fluorescence sensing applications

Development of surface plasmon resonance enhancing surfaces can lead to improvements in fluorescence-based chemical and biological sensing schemes. The motivation of this research is to have a method for easily fabricating plasmonic surface features on silver films which can be controlled by altering the physical properties of sub-layers under the silver film. Here, we report on preliminary work towards fabrication and control of such films through the use of soft lithographic micro-contact printing techniques for the formation of diffraction patterns, and the use of high surface area, low surface energy nanoporous films to drive the formation of nano-scopic gaps within the silver film. Florescence microscopy imaging of fabricated surfaces shows promising results, though further research will be needed to fine tune the surface to produce strong fluorescence emission.