The
Surface Photonics group together with the
Molecular Plasmonics group at the Eindhoven University of Technology have two PhD positions in the field of metasurfaces for single-molecule biosensing. This collaborative project aims to develop a new generation of single-molecule sensors that exploit collective and localized resonances in metasurfaces to boost the temporal resolution of single-molecule fluorescence sensors.
InformationCurrent workhorse techniques to detect and study single biomolecules rely on fluorescence microscopy. Due to the limited brightness of fluorescent dyes, these platforms only give access to biomolecular processes (e.g. interaction kinetics) on long timescales, from milliseconds to minutes. Recent advances in Zijlstra’s group used metallic nanoparticles to enhance the fluorescence intensity. This approach has given access for the first time into previously inaccessible microsecond dynamics (
link). However, real applications are still far away because the associated heating of the laser-excited nanoparticles affects the biomolecule and its dynamics.
About the projectIn this position, you will design, fabricate, and characterize your fluorescence-enhancing metasurfaces based on arrays of dielectric or semiconductor nanoparticles with negligible light-induced heating. You will leverage very recent advances in metasurfaces supporting low-loss optical modes, such as surface lattice resonances and bound states in the continuum. The design of these modes and their application toward single-molecule biosensing is exciting yet entirely unexplored. You will combine numerical simulations, nanofabrication, and super-resolution optical microscopy to achieve the project goals.
The project will be supervised by Prof. Gomez Rivas (Surface Photonics group) and co-supervised by Prof. P. Zijlstra (Molecular Plasmonics group) at TU/e. You will closely collaborate with the other PhD student employed on the project, who will work on the application toward single-molecule protein sensing.
About the groupsBoth groups are part of the department of Applied Physics and Science Education. The surface photonics group investigates light-matter interaction in a broad range of frequencies, from the visible to the THz. This interaction is enhanced by resonant structures, such as metallic or dielectric nanoparticles and metasurfaces. The group is part of the research cluster "Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics".
The molecular plasmonics group develops plasmonic and nanophotonic biosensors with single-molecule sensitivity. The nanoscale field confinement in resonant (e.g. plasmonic) nanoparticles is exploited to detect and study single molecules in real-time. The team is multidisciplinary and hosts physicists, chemists, and biomedical engineers who collaborate in a close-knit team. The lab hosts a range of state-of-the-art single-molecule microscopes in optical laboratories, as well as wet-chemical labs for sample preparation. The group is part of a bigger research cluster focusing on optical sensing.