Viral particles imaging through evanescent wave scattering in a total internal reflection laser microscope

Optical imaging of objects at the nanometric scale is limited by light diffraction, and for this reason several sub-diffractive optical microscopy techniques have been developed in the last decades. In this article we present an optical laser microscope specifically designed for detection of nano-ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research Vol. 37; p. 100517
Main Authors: Lo Savio, Roberto, Piselli, Sara, Bertelli, Cinzia, Pizzato, Massimo, Carloni, Adolfo
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier B.V 01-08-2022
Elsevier
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Summary:Optical imaging of objects at the nanometric scale is limited by light diffraction, and for this reason several sub-diffractive optical microscopy techniques have been developed in the last decades. In this article we present an optical laser microscope specifically designed for detection of nano-materials exploiting the Mie scattering between the evanescent wave generated by a laser beam travelling in a transparent substrate through total internal reflection and the nano-objects deposited on the substrate itself. The setup, including the laser source, can be fully integrated inside an optical microscope requiring only a geometric alignment with the substrate thus reducing the complexity and the cost. We also report two possible applications: quantitative detection of Au nanoparticles in the 20-100 nm size range and semi-quantitative detection of virions immobilized on the substrate through bioreceptor / antigen binding, including, but not limited to, SARS-CoV-2. A minimum virus amount of ≈105 in the reaction volume is observed. The results presented here open the route towards unprecedent applications in molecular biology or molecular diagnostics. •Laser microscope for detection of nano-objects through evanescent wave scattering.•Quantitative detection of Au nanoparticles with minimum size of 20 nm.•Detection label-free of SARS-CoV-2 with LOD sensitivity of 105 virions.
ISSN:2214-1804
2214-1804
DOI:10.1016/j.sbsr.2022.100517