Phenomenon like resonance energy transfer is widely utilized for many bio-detection schemes where biomolecules actively bind to optical donor and acceptor labeled antibodies to form “sandwich complexes” but the large size of these complexes limits the efficiency of energy transfer, preventing sensitive detection which leads to false outcomes of the tests. In our project, we propose to improve the efficiency of energy transfer through the use of solution-phase optical microcavities.
We have designed a novel optical donor that should be capable of performing the energy transfer efficiently over larger distances than the traditional resonance energy transfer limit. We have designed structures where colloidal fluorescent quantum dots (QDs) are precisely located inside dielectric microspheres and the fluorescence of the quantum dots is trapped inside the optical cavities via total internal reflections leading to optical resonances known as whispering gallery modes and the tuning of the experimental parameters will allow us to maximize the coupling of the fluorescence emission of QDs to the modes to achieve the best efficiency of the system. Following the fabrication of the optical donor, we have introduced highly absorbing dye nanoparticles as optical acceptors in the evanescent field of the microcavities and characterized the efficiency of the energy transfer through the optical modes. Now we are developing a technique to impart bio-specificity to the microbeads to detect biomolecules of interest with improved sensitivity and simple methodology.
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