Development and applications of flexible plasmonic devices for biochemical application

Recent years have seen a rising interest in the advancement of versatile plasmonic devices due to their lightweight, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced flexibility compared to traditional rigid substrates like glass or silicon. Plasmonic devices excel in controlling and amplifying the electromagnetic field at optical frequencies, particularly at the metal-dielectric interface on a nanoscale. This capability significantly improves the performance of analytical tools such as fluorescence microscopy and spectrometry. Nanostructured plasmonic devices have found substantial applications in fields like biology, medicine, and bioengineering for the analysis of biological samples. The study discusses the fabrication of thin, flexible plasmonic devices using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with gold nanoparticle clusters, integrated with a microfluidic circuit for rapid and efficient analyses, successfully detecting anti-human immunoglobulins G (IgG) in solution.