Development of innovative plasmonic nanostructures for vibrational biosensing

In order to allow for a molecular specific as well as trace level sensitive detection in biosensing, vibrational spectroscopy is applied in combination with plasmonic active materials. Within this contribution, we report on the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technique, the fabrication of powerful SERS substrates and finally illustrate the potential in biosensing. Mannose-modified SERS tags are applied to be taken up by macrophages in a large amount which serves as a model for the detection of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques in an early stage. Moreover, to allow for an improved quantification SERS active surfaces are equipped with an internal standard. Finally, a newly developed fabrication strategy of SERS substrate templates will be introduced forming 3D hierarchical nanostructures by metastable state assisted atomic layer deposition. Thus, a detailed overview on innovative plasmonic nanostructures for biosensing developed in our labs is given.