Plasmonic Nanocavities-based Aperiodic crystal for Protein-Protein Recognition SERS sensors

The revelation of protein-protein interactions is one of the main preoccupations in the field of proteomics. Nanoplasmonics has emerged as an attractive surface-based technique because of its ability to sense protein binding under physiological conditions in a label-free manner. Here, we present a detailed experimental study of the use of aperiodic photonic nanocavities for plasmonic Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) protein detection and recognition. The plasmonic crystal is designed on a 2D Thue-Morse array configuration. The SERS nanosensor is coated with a proper self-assembled monolayer to covalently bind Bovine Serum Albumin that is a well known model to study biological (specifically, protein) systems. The performance of the nanosensor is assessed by recording a new Raman (SERS) peak in the fingerprint region and by a giant enhancement of the SERS signal intensity, both reported and discussed.