Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has great promise as a technique for detecting trace amounts of biological and chemical samples, because of its advantages, e.g. nondestructive, no photobleaching, sensitive and fast detection. Our SERS immunosensor is composed of an Au@Ag two-dimensional (2D) array substrate and SERS probes, which are 4, 4′-thiobisbenzenethiol (TBBT)-labeled AuNPs conjugated with antibodies. The detection of influenza A nucleoproteins is achieved by observing the Raman signal of TBBT. We have succeeded in selective detection of influenza A nucleoproteins. We found that the detection sensitivity is increased by using the Au@Ag2D array substrate, instead of a SERS inactive substrate (Au film). This improvement is attributed to the plasmonic coupling between the SERS substrate and SERS probes.

© 2015 Japan Society of Applied Physics, Optical Society of America