Fluorescence Enhancement at Docking Sites of DNA-Directed Self-Assembled Nanoantennas

Abstract

Building a Fluorescent Hotspot When two gold nanoparticles come close together, their overlapping plasmonic fields can create a region that acts as a nanoantenna that can enhance the fluorescent emission of a molecule. Acuna et al. (p. 506 ) used a surface-anchored DNA origami structure to assemble one or two gold nanoparticles next to a dye trapped within the structure. A > 100-fold enhancement in fluorescent emission was observed when the dye molecules were located in a 23-nm gap between two 100-nm gold nanoparticles.