Photonic antennas for ultra-sensitive biomolecular detection

Nanophotonics offer new opportunities to further improve single molecule optical detection beyond the diffraction limit. We exploit novel concepts of photonic antennas to generate new bionanophotonic tools for ultrasensitive detection of individual biomolecules in the micro-molar range. The major goal is to engineer photonic antenna devices to concentrate the light into nanometer-scale illumination volumes and simultaneously enhance the molecular emission. Single molecule spectroscopy techniques such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) can greatly benefit from photonic nanoantennas to enter a new dimension of higher sensitivities at molecular concentrations reaching physiological conditions.

For more information see the BioNano@ICFO website.