Research Projects

Optical Transformer for Sruface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)

Ming C. Wu, Eli Yablonovitch, Constance Chang-Hasnain, Jeffrey Bokor, Andrew R. Neureuther, Luke Lee¹, Jim Schuck² and Jeff Neaton³

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) is a powerful technique for detecting biological and chemical warfare agents as the Raman spectrum provide a unique fingerprint of molecules and unique label-free detection capability without typical fluorescent labeling steps. Though single molecule detection has been reported using SERS, a key difficulty has been the lack of control of the ¿hot spots¿ that give huge signals, such as those found in the inhomogeneous arrays of metal particles in aqueous solutions The goal of this project is to develop a systematic understanding of the enhancement factors in SERS. We propose to use nano-optical transformers to match the impedances of the molecules and the optical antenna, leading to predictable, engineerable, and reproducible large SERS enhancement.

¹UCB Bioengineering Department
²Molecular Foundry, LBL
³Molecular Foundry, LBL