System and method for sensing and trapping nanoparticles with plasmonic nanopores

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10508981-B2
Application number	US-201916248758-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 15, 2019
Priority date	Mar 31, 2016
Publication date	Dec 17, 2019
Grant date	Dec 17, 2019

Abstract

An apparatus for trapping and sensing nanoparticles using plasmonic nanopores, comprising a conductive transparent layer, a conductive film layer mounted to a substrate, the film layer comprising a plurality of nanopores for trapping nanoparticles contained in a fluid situated between the conductive transparent layer and the conductive film layer, and an electric field source connected between the transparent layer and the film layer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A particle sensor, comprising:
a conductive transparent layer;
a conductive film aperture layer mounted to a substrate, the aperture layer comprising a plurality of nanopores for trapping nanoparticles contained in a fluid situated between the transparent layer and the aperture layer, the nanoparticles functionalized with a target protein, the nanopores functionalized with an antibody of the target protein;
a light source configured to illuminate the nanopores to induce a flow of the nanoparticles towards the nanopores; and
an electric field source connected between the transparent layer and the aperture layer.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the light source is a laser.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the conductive transparent layer comprises indium tin oxide.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a metasurface lens which focuses the light source onto the nanopores.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein a diffraction grating is formed in the transparent layer.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles comprise gold.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the electric field source comprises an alternating current source.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein a frequency of the alternating current source is in the range of 5 KHz-100 KHz.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the field produced by the electric field source is in the range of 40K-1 M volts per meter.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a random array of nanopores in the aperture layer separated from each other, wherein the random array of nanospores absorb broadband light to generate surface plasmons.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the nanopore is surrounded by a bullseye grating to provide concentration of light to the nanopore and outcoupling of light from the nanopore to free space.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the aperture layer comprises alternating layers of subwavelength metal and dielectric nanostructures.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the aperture layer comprises alternating portions of subwavelength metal and dielectric nanostructures arranged configuration, each of said portions extending through the aperature layer thickness.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each nanospore of the nanopores have a diameter in the range of 2 nm to 900 nm.

Assignees

• Purdue Research Foundation

Inventors

• Ndukaife Justus C
• Boltasseva Alexandra
• Nnanna Agbai

Classifications

• G21K1/30

  for confining neutral particles or handling confined neutral particles, e.g. atom traps · CPC title

• G01N15/00 Primary

  Investigating characteristics of particles; Investigating permeability, pore-volume or surface-area of porous materials · CPC title

• B82Y30/00

  Nanotechnology for materials or surface science, e.g. nanocomposites · CPC title

• G01N2015/0038

  Investigating nanoparticles · CPC title

• G02B5/008

  Surface plasmon devices (diffractive gratings with a pitch less than or comparable to the wavelength G02B5/1809; surface plasmons in integrated optics G02B6/1226; optical analysis of materials by means of surface plasmons G01N21/553) · CPC title