UV-nil based fabrication of plasmon-magnetic nanoparticles for biomolecular sensing

In this manuscript, a technique to realize multifunctional anisotropic nanoparticles with small size distribution in large quantities is presented. The fabrication of the nanoparticles is based on Ultraviolet Nanoimprint Lithography (UV-NIL), physical vapor deposition and lift-off processes in order to finally disperse the nanoparticles in solution. The particles are designed for in-vitro biomolecular diagnostics. The underlying homogeneous biomolecular sensing method is based on the optical detection of changes in the rotational dynamics of anisotropic hybrid nanoparticles immersed in the sample solution, such as blood. [1], [2] This approach requires highly monodisperse nanoparticles in order to achieve a high sensitivity in molecule detection. The fabrication method based on UV-NIL and lift-off processes holds several advantages compared to chemical synthesized nanoparticles, like very small size variations and engineering freedom in particle geometry. We demonstrate the fabrication of elliptical particles with an area size of 1,557 × 10^(-12)m2 ±3%.