PLASMONIC OPTICAL TRANSDUCER

• US 20130135617A1
• Filed: 11/30/2011
• Published: 05/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: POTYRAILO, Radislav Alexandrovich, PRIS, Andrew David, OSBERG, Windsor Paige
• Application Number:
  US13/308,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20130135617A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/326
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/554 detecting the surface plasmon resonance of nanostructured metals, e.g. localised surface plasmon resonance

Abstract

A transducer includes a source of electromagnetic radiation, a substrate having a plurality of flow through passages and a receiver. The plurality of nanoparticles is disposed on the substrate and includes a material having a dielectric constant being arranged to support a photonically excited Plasmon in response to electromagnetic radiation from the source. The receiver measures the electromagnetic radiation and is disposed in optical communication with the substrate.

Claims

1. A transducer system comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation;

an intrinsically porous dielectric substrate disposed to receive radiation from the source, the substrate comprising a plurality of prefabricated internal through-flow pathways;

a plurality of nanoparticles disposed on the substrate said plurality of nanoparticles comprising a material having a dielectric constant in a range to support a photonically excited Plasmon in response to electromagnetic radiation from the source; and

a receiver for measuring the electromagnetic radiation disposed in optical communication with the substrate.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said substrate comprises an anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate, said substrate being porous and said pathways comprising pores distributed therethrough.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said substrate has a thickness to support distribution of at least 5 nanoparticles, and wherein said pores comprise 200 nm pores.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said substrate comprises at least one of glass, quartz, silicon dioxide, gallium nitride said substrate being porous and said pathways comprising pores distributed therethrough

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of nanoparticles are shaped as at least one of rods, spheres, shells, disks, rings, crescents, holes, spheroids, pyramids, and cubes.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of nanoparticles is substantially non-aggregated.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of nanoparticles comprises gold nanorods.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said substrate comprises plasmonically inactive material with respect to radiation from the source.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said substrate comprises a plurality of nanopores throughout said substrate to allow a flow of fluid therethrough.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said receiver comprises a spectrometer coupled to a computing unit, at least one of the spectrometer and computing unit configured to identify the plurality of targets based on a change in a refractive index of an analyte in the pathways.

11. A method comprising:

applying electromagnetic radiation to a substrate having a plurality of internal through-flow pathways;

the substrate having a plurality of nanoparticles disposed thereon, the plurality of nanoparticles comprising a material having a dielectric constant being in a range to support a photonically excited Plasmon in response to the electromagnetic radiation;

a receiver disposed in optical communication with the substrate and measuring the electromagnetic radiation; and

flowing a target through the pathways.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising flowing an analyte having a target through the flow-through substrate.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising measuring a change in a refractive index of the analyte flowing through the substrate to obtain a measured change.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising identifying the plurality of targets based on the measured change.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the receiver comprises a spectrometer coupled to a computing unit and further comprising identifying a target by at least one of the spectrometer and the computing unit based on the change in the refractive index.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising embedding the plurality of nanoparticles in the substrate using a layer by layer process.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising embedding the plurality of nanoparticles in the substrate using a covalent attachment chemistry process.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the substrate comprises an anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate having 200 nm diameter pores and further comprising flowing the analytes through the pores.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the substrate comprises at least one of glass, quartz, silicon dioxide, gallium nitride said substrate being porous and said pathways comprising pores distributed therethrough

20. The method of claim 11 wherein the plurality of nanoparticles are shaped as at rods, spheres, shells, disks, rings, crescents, holes, spheroids, pyramids, or cubes.

21. The method of claim 11 wherein the plurality of nanoparticles is substantially non-aggregated.

22. The method of claim 11 wherein the plurality of nanoparticles comprises gold nanorods.

23. The method of claim 11 wherein the substrate is plasmonically inactive relative to the electromagnetic radiation.

24. The method of claim 13 wherein the measuring the change comprises denoising, data acquisition acceleration, and fault identification.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising providing identity information, kinetic information, and concentration information based on the measuring.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the measuring provides correction for flow-induced sensor-response errors, sensor-to-sensor variability, effects of the sample condition not related to analyte concentration, and variability in an optical readout.