Long-range surface plasmon-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy biosensor for ultrasensitive detection of E. coli O157:H7.

A new biosensor platform for the detection of bacterial pathogens based on long-range surface plasmon-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy (LRSP-FS) is presented. The resonant excitation of LRSP modes provides an enhanced intensity of the electromagnetic field, which is directly translated to an increased strength of fluorescence signal measured upon the capture of target analyte at the sensor surface. LRSPs originate from a coupling of surface plasmons across a thin metallic film embedded in dielectrics with similar refractive indices. With respect to regular surface plasmon-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy, the excitation of LRSPs offers the advantage of a larger enhancement of the evanescent field intensity and a micrometer probing depth that is comparable to the size of target bacterial pathogens. The potential of the developed sensor platform is demonstrated in an experiment in which the detection of E. coli O157:H7 was carried out using sandwich immunoassays. The limit of detection below 10 cfu mL(-1) and detection time of 40 min were achieved.