Advanced photonic antennas for cellular nano-imaging and spectroscopy

Development of nano-tools for quantitative bio-imaging

Project description

We exploit novel concepts of photonic antennas to generate new bionanophotonic tools for ultrasensitive detection, nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy of biomolecules in living cells. By taking advantage of the extraordinary field enhancement, directionality and nanofocusing afforded by resonant and broadband photonic antennas, our approach will allow the ultimate level of sensitivity down to single biomolecule detection in ultra-reduced detection volumes (including living cells). Current efforts focus on the fabrication of aperture antennas either carved at the end of near-field optical fibers or fabricated on planar substrates. When applied to living cells, these devices should provide optical resolution with sub-nanometer localization accuracy as well as dynamic information on the diffusion of individual molecules in nanometer scale regions of the cell membrane.

ICFO groups associated with the project

ICFO publications associated with the project

External collaborations

Dr. Jerome Wenger (Institute Fresnel, Marseille, France), 
Prof. Juergen Brugger (Microsystems Lab, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland), Dr. Mathieu Mivelle (ESPCI, Paris, France)

Funding

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Advanced photonic antennas for cellular nano-imaging and spectroscopy