Plasmonic and Photonic Biosensors

Dear Colleagues,

Biosensing platforms based on optical transduction methods offer great advantages over conventional analytical techniques because they enable the direct, fast, real-time, and often label-free detection of many biological molecules, showing high specificity, sensitivity, small size, and cost-effectiveness. In such a framework, research on advanced plasmonic and photonic biosensors has been mainly directed towards healthcare, environmental applications, and biotechnology. This development takes advantage of multidisciplinary expertise, including optics, microelectronics, microelectromechanical systems, microfluidics, micro/nanotechnological processes, materials science, chemistry, molecular biology, biomedicine, and agri-food sciences.

In the last two decades, several nanomaterials have been developed, aimed at exploiting the interaction of optical electromagnetic fields with customized biorecognition elements. Among them, metal–dielectric plasmonic nanostructures and one/two/three-dimensional photonic crystals represent the main building blocks of advanced biosensors based on mechanisms such as metal enhanced fluorescence, surface enhanced Raman scattering, surface plasmon resonance, and waveguide- and reflectometric-based interference spectroscopy, where the main challenges are to detect small molecules at ultralow concentrations and produce compact devices for point-of-care analysis.

This Special Issue aims to introduce recent progress in the fabrication and application of plasmonic and photonic biosensors, promoting a synergy of several complementary competences in the research community.

Prof. Fabrizio Giorgis
Dr. Chiara Novara
Guest Editors

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