Plasmon-enhanced fluorescence of labeled biomolecules on top of a silver sol-gel film

A simple chemical technique was devised for the fabrication of silver nanostructured substrates which can be used for plasmonic enhancement of labeled proteins fluorescence. For bovine serum albumin labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate, the obtained enhancement factor ranges from three to seven, depending on metal-luminophore spacing and silver nanoparticle size. For excitation with linear polarized light, the enhancement factor increases noticeably for p-polarization and decreases for s-polarization. The experimental results were interpreted in terms of the theoretical model in which the enhancement factor depends on incident light polarization, luminophoremetal spacing and silver nanoparticle size. Proposed plasmonic substrates can be considered as an affordable replacement of standard ones in different types of fluorescent assays for the purpose of increasing sensitivity. (C) 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.JNP.6.061710]