The fluorescence enhancement can be significantly improved by the use of the periodicity of an ensemble of metal nanostructures, since highly ordered metal nanostructure is far greater than that of aperiodic array or randomly roughened metal surface. As yet, however, very few attempts have been made in the use of metal nanopattern as the MEF, largely due to the difficulty of generating perfect nanoarrays over large-area and placing and immobilizing the biomolecules at predefined positions afforded by the periodic regions of the templates.

Here, we developed a platform of the use of large-area of metal nanopattern (2.7 nm × 2.7 mm) using capillary lithography with high-throughput and subsequent layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition for fluorescence enhancement in a form of DNA microarray, in which their optical properties are adjusted by varying fabrication parameters such as a feature size, periodicity and LBL thickness, leading to a tailored nanoscale design of ultrabright fluorescence emission system with practical manner. The present developments potentially open the way for a variety of nano-biotechnology and optical device applications based on highly periodic patterns over large-areas.

References

1. Generation with capillary force lithography of various complex patterned structures from a single ellipsoidal dot prepattern, J.M. Jung, F. Stellacci, H.-T. Jung, Advanced Materials 19(24), 4392 (2007)

2. Gold-conjugated Protein Nanoarrays via Block Copolymer Lithography: From Fabrication to Biosensors Design, J.-M. Jung, K. Y. Kwon, T.-H. Ha, B. H. Chung, H.-T. Jung, Small 2, 1010 (2006)

3. Internal structure visualization and lithographic use of periodic toroidal holes in liquid crystals, DK Yoon, MC Choi, YH Kim, MW Kim, OD Lavrentovich, HT Jung, Nature Materials 6(11), 866 (2007)

4. Covalent Attachment and Hybridization of DNA Oligonucleotides on Patterned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Films, D.-H. Jung, B. H. Kim, Y. K. Ko, M. S. Jung, S.O. Jung, S. Y. Lee, and H.-T. Jung, Langmuir, 20(20), 8886-8891 (2004)