Whispering-Gallery Mode Optoplasmonic Microcavities: From Advanced Single-Molecule Sensors and Microlasers to Applications in Synthetic Biology

Overview

Journal ACS Photonics

Publisher American Chemical Society

Date 2024 Mar 25

PMID 38523742

Authors

Matthew C Houghton

Samir Vartabi Kashanian

Thomas L Derrien

Koji Masuda

Frank Vollmer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Optical microcavities, specifically, whispering-gallery mode (WGM) microcavities, with their remarkable sensitivity to environmental changes, have been extensively employed as biosensors, enabling the detection of a wide range of biomolecules and nanoparticles. To push the limits of detection down to the most sensitive single-molecule level, plasmonic nanorods are strategically introduced to enhance the evanescent fields of WGM microcavities. This advancement of optoplasmonic WGM sensors allows for the detection of single molecules of a protein, conformational changes, and even atomic ions, marking significant contributions in single-molecule sensing. This Perspective discusses the exciting research prospects in optoplasmonic WGM sensing of single molecules, including the study of enzyme thermodynamics and kinetics, the emergence of thermo-optoplasmonic sensing, the ultrasensitive single-molecule sensing on WGM microlasers, and applications in synthetic biology.

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