Plasmonic Metasurfaces Based on Pyramidal Nanoholes for High-Efficiency SERS Biosensing.

An inverted pyramidal metasurface was designed, fabricated, and studied at the nanoscale level for the development of a label-free pathogen detection on a chip platform that merges nanotechnology and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Based on the integration and synergy of these ingredients, a virus immunoassay was proposed as a relevant proof of concept for very sensitive detection of hepatitis A virus, for the first time to our best knowledge, in a very small volume (2 μL), without complex signal amplification, allowing to detect a minimal virus concentration of 13 pg/mL. The proposed work aims to develop a high-flux and high-accuracy surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) nanobiosensor for the detection of pathogens to provide an effective method for early and easy water monitoring, which can be fast and convenient.