AI Article Synopsis

  • Integration of plasmonic nanostructures with fiber-optic neural probes allows for label-free molecular detection using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), opening new prospects for brain function analysis.
  • A novel tapered optical fiber (TF) coated with gold nanoislands (NIs) has been developed to detect neurotransmitters at micromolar concentrations with minimal invasiveness.
  • The innovative fabrication technique achieves a detection limit of 10 m for substances like rhodamine 6G, serotonin, and dopamine, indicating potential for future in vivo applications in neurotechnology.

Article Abstract

Integration of plasmonic nanostructures with fiber-optics-based neural probes enables label-free detection of molecular fingerprints via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and it represents a fascinating technological horizon to investigate brain function. However, developing neuroplasmonic probes that can interface with deep brain regions with minimal invasiveness while providing the sensitivity to detect biomolecular signatures in a physiological environment is challenging, in particular because the same waveguide must be employed for both delivering excitation light and collecting the resulting scattered photons. Here, a SERS-active neural probe based on a tapered optical fiber (TF) decorated with gold nanoislands (NIs) that can detect neurotransmitters down to the micromolar range is presented. To do this, a novel, nonplanar repeated dewetting technique to fabricate gold NIs with sub-10 nm gaps, uniformly distributed on the wide (square millimeter scale in surface area), highly curved surface of TF is developed. It is experimentally and numerically shown that the amplified broadband near-field enhancement of the high-density NIs layer allows for achieving a limit of detection in aqueous solution of 10  m for rhodamine 6G and 10  m for serotonin and dopamine through SERS at near-infrared wavelengths. The NIs-TF technology is envisioned as a first step toward the unexplored frontier of in vivo label-free plasmonic neural interfaces.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202200902DOI Listing

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