Gold
nanoparticle layers (AuNPLs) enable the coupling of morphological,
optical, and electrical properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with
tailored and specific surface topography, making them exploitable
in many bioapplications (e.g., biosensing, drug delivery, and photothermal
therapy). Herein, we report the formation of AuNPLs on porous silicon
(PSi) interferometers and distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) for
(bio)sensing applications via layer-by-layer (LbL) nanoassembling
of a positively charged polyelectrolyte, namely, poly(allylamine hydrochloride)
(PAH), and negatively charged citrate-capped AuNPs. Decoration of
PSi interferometers with AuNPLs enhances the Fabry–Pérot
fringe contrast due to increased surface reflectivity, resulting in
an augmented sensitivity for both bulk and surface refractive index
sensing, namely, about 4.5-fold using NaCl aqueous solutions to infiltrate
the pores and 2.6-fold for unspecific bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption
on the pore surface, respectively. Sensitivity enhancing, about 2.5-fold,
is also confirmed for affinity and selective biosensing of streptavidin
using a biotinylated polymer, namely, negatively charged poly(methacrylic
acid) (b-PMAA). Further, decoration of PSi DBR with AuNPLs envisages
building up a hybrid photonic/plasmonic optical sensing platform.
Both photonic (DBR stop-band) and plasmonic (localized surface plasmon
resonance, LSPR) peaks of the hybrid structure are sensitive to changes
of bulk (using glucose aqueous solutions) and surface (due to BSA
unspecific adsorption) refractive index. To the best of our knowledge,
this is the first report about the formation of AuNPLs via LbL nanoassembly
on PSi for (i) the enhancing of the interferometric performance in
(bio)sensing applications and (ii) the building up of hybrid photonic/plasmonic
platforms for sensing and perspective biosensing applications.