Abstract

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) fiber sensors have shown great potential in sensitive biosensing and medical diagnostics. However, current SERS fiber probes are most commonly based on stiff silica fibers, which, unfortunately, are not mechanically compliant with soft biological tissues. In addition, the poor biocompatibility of silica fibers sets another barrier that hinders their development for biomedical applications. Here, we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of soft-polymer-optical-fiber-based SERS (SPOF-SERS) probes with physio-mechanical properties suitable for implantation, and demonstrate their potential applications for in situ detection of bioanalysts. The SPOFs are made from porous hydrogel materials that are soft, elastic, and biocompatible. The three-dimensional porous structures of the hydrogels enable high loading of metal nanoparticles to provide a large amount of SERS “hot spots” for high sensitivity. We tested the SPOF-SERS sensor for detection and discrimination of rhodamine 6G and 4-mercaptopyridine in situ with detection limits of ${10}^{-7}\mathrm{M}$ and ${10}^{-8}\mathrm{M}$, respectively. We also demonstrated the capability of SPOF-SERS probes in multiplexing detection. The soft, biocompatible, and highly sensitive SERS probe is promising for bioanalytical and implantable biomedical applications.

© 2018 Optical Society of America

Micro-lensed optical fibers for a surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensing probe

Karolina Milenko, Silje S. Fuglerud, Snorre B. Kjeldby, Reinold Ellingsen, Astrid Aksnes, and Dag R. Hjelme
Opt. Lett. 43(24) 6029-6032 (2018)

Print metallic nanoparticles on a fiber probe for 1064-nm surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Ana Sánchez-Solís, Farzia Karim, Md Shah Alam, Qiwen Zhan, Tzarara López-Luke, and Chenglong Zhao
Opt. Lett. 44(20) 4997-5000 (2019)

Optofluidic in-fiber integrated surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy detection based on a hollow optical fiber with a suspended core

Danheng Gao, Xinghua Yang, Pingping Teng, Zhihai Liu, Jun Yang, Depeng Kong, Jianzhong Zhang, Meng Luo, Zhanao Li, Fengjun Tian, and Libo Yuan
Opt. Lett. 44(21) 5173-5176 (2019)

Characterization of a new polymer optical fiber with enhanced sensing capabilities using a Bragg grating

Arnaldo Leal-Junior, Antreas Theodosiou, Anselmo Frizera-Neto, Maria José Pontes, Ehud Shafir, Oleg Palchik, Nadav Tal, Shlomi Zilberman, Garry Berkovic, Paulo Antunes, Paulo André, Kyriacos Kalli, and Carlos Marques
Opt. Lett. 43(19) 4799-4802 (2018)

Surface-enhanced Raman-scattering fiber probe fabricated by femtosecond laser

Xinwei Lan, Yukun Han, Tao Wei, Yinan Zhang, Lan Jiang, Hai-Lung Tsai, and Hai Xiao
Opt. Lett. 34(15) 2285-2287 (2009)