Final Report Summary - MULTIBIOPHOT (Multiphoton processes using plasmonics towards advanced nanobiophotonics)
In this project, novel spectroscopic strategies based on multi-photon excitation were explored. In order to overcome low-signal problems related to multi-photon spectroscopy, plasmonic nanostructures from gold and silver were exploited, and multi-photon spectroscopy was conducted in their enhanced local optical fields. As main goal, different plasmonics-enhanced two-photon spectroscopic methods were combined, and it was shown that multimodal two-photon sensing and imaging can be developed based on this combination. With examples of live cultured cells, as well as plant tissues, such as pollen, we were able to illustrate that information can be provided on their morphological structures and function along with chemical information about molecular composition, structure, and interactions. There resulted a number of important general findings from the work, including new knowledge about setting up multimodal multiphoton microspectroscopic experiments, the design, application, and characterization of novel plasmonic nanoprobes, and new results on the interaction of nanoparticles with biological materials.