Dynamic plasmonic imaging of electromechanically driven nano-oscillators for charge-resolved multiplex biosensing
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Updated: Nov 13, 2026

Measurement of Scattering Nonlinearities from a Single Plasmonic Nanoparticle
Published on: January 3, 2016
Yunxiao Wang1, Xiaoyin Liu1, Jingyu Wu1
1Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Intelligent Sensing Technology and Advanced Medical Instrument, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Abstract:
Multiplexed profiling of diverse biomarkers is essential for precision diagnostics, but remains challenging for label-free sensors because signals typically scale with analyte mass. Here, we present a dynamic plasmonic imaging platform based on electromechanically driven nano-oscillators for multiplexed, label-free quantification of nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules within a unified sensing architecture. Size-encoded nanoparticles tethered to a plasmonic surface are electrically actuated to oscillate vertically within the evanescent field and tracked by distance-resolved surface plasmon resonance imaging. Molecular binding alters the effective surface charge of each nano-oscillator, modulating the electrostatic-driven forces and changing oscillation amplitude. This charge-to-motion transduction mechanism reduces dependence on molecular mass and enhances sensitivity for low-molecular weight analytes. This platform simultaneously detects microRNAs, proteins, and small molecules spanning a ∼300-fold molecular weight range within a single field of view. We further demonstrate multiplexed profiling of tumor-associated microRNAs in pretreated supernatants from patient-derived breast cancer cells across 24 clinical samples. Dynamic plasmonic nano-oscillators provide a scalable architecture for multiplex molecular diagnostics.

