The authors regret that some funding information was omitted from the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript. The complete Acknowledgements section should read as follows: Acknowledgements The authors thank Jing Jiang and Te-Wei Chang for help with the SEM. We thank Hoang Nguyen, Cindy Larson for the preparation of master nanopillar mold. Transmission experiments were carried out in the Frederick Seitz

Colorimetric sensors usually suffer due to errors from variation in light source intensity, the type of light source, the Bayer filter algorithm, and the sensitivity of the camera to incoming light. Here, we demonstrate a self-referenced portable smartphone-based plasmonic sensing platform integrated with an internal reference sample along with an image processing method to perform colorimetric sensing. Two sensing principles based on unique nanoplasmonics enabled phenomena from a nanostructured plasmonic sensor, named as nanoLCA (nano Lycurgus cup array), were demonstrated here for colorimetric biochemical sensing: liquid refractive index sensing and optical absorbance enhancement sensing. Refractive indices of colorless liquids were measured by simple smartphone imaging and color analysis. Optical absorbance enhancement in the colorimetric biochemical assay was achieved by matching the plasmon resonance wavelength with the chromophore's absorbance peak wavelength. Such a sensing mechanism improved the limit of detection (LoD) by 100 times in a microplate reader format. Compared with a traditional colorimetric assay such as urine testing strips, a smartphone plasmon enhanced colorimetric sensing system provided 30 times improvement in the LoD. The platform was applied for simulated urine testing to precisely identify the samples with higher protein concentration, which showed potential point-of-care and early detection of kidney disease with the smartphone plasmonic resonance sensing system.

Surface-Enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been increasingly utilized as an analytical technique with significant chemical and biological applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. However, production of a robust, homogeneous and large-area SERS substrate with the same ultra high sensitivity and reproducibility still remain an important issue. Here, we describe a large-area ultrahighuniformity tapered silver nanopillar array made by laser interference lithography on the entire surface of a 6-inch wafer. Also presented is the rigorous optical characterization method of the tapered nanopillar substrate to accurately quantify the Raman enhancement factor, uniformity and repeatability. An average homogeneous enhancement factor of close to 10 8 was obtained for benzenethiol adsorbed on a silver coated nanopillar substrate.

We demonstrate surface plasmon-induced enhancements in optical imaging and spectroscopy on silver coated silicon nanocones which we call black silver substrate. The black silver substrate with dense and homogeneous nanocone forest structure is fabricated on wafer level with a mass producible nanomanufacturing method. The black silver substrate is able to efficiently trap and convert incident photons into localized plasmons in a broad wavelength range, which permits the enhancement in optical absorption from UV to NIR range by 12 times, the visible fluorescence enhancement of ~30 times and the NIR Raman scattering enhancement factor up to ~10 8 . We show a considerable potential of the black silver substrate in high sensitivity and broadband optical sensing and imaging of chemical and biological molecules.

Point-of-care (POC) applications have expanded hugely in recent years and is likely to continue, with an aim to deliver cheap, portable, and reliable devices to meet the demands of healthcare industry. POC devices are designed, prototyped, and assembled using numerous strategies but the key essential features that biosensing devices require are: (1) sensitivity, (2) selectivity, (3) specificity, (4) repeatability, and (5) good limit of detection. Overall the fabrication and commercialization of the nanohole array (NHA) setup to the outside world still remains a challenge. Here, we review the various methods of NHA fabrication, the design criteria, the geometrical features, the effects of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) on sensing as well as current state-of-the-art of existing NHA sensors. This review also provides easy-to-understand examples of NHA-based POC biosensing applications, its current status, challenges, and future prospects.