Lee Dong-Kyu, Kang Ji-Hun, Kwon Junghoon, Lee Jun-Seok, Lee Seok, Woo Deok Ha, Kim Jae Hun, Song Chang-Seon, Park Q-Han, Seo Minah
Sensor System Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, 02792, Republic of Korea.
Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 15;7(1):8146. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08508-7.
As a candidate for a rapid detection of biomaterials, terahertz (THz) spectroscopy system can be considered with some advantage in non-destructive, label-free, and non-contact manner. Because protein-ligand binding energy is in the THz range, especially, most important conformational information in molecular interactions can be captured by THz electromagnetic wave. Based on the THz time-domain spectroscopy system, THz nano-metamaterial sensing chips were prepared for great enhancing of detection sensitivity. A metamaterial sensing chip was designed for increasing of absorption cross section of the target sample, related to the transmitted THz near field enhancement via the composition of metamaterial. The measured THz optical properties were then analyzed in terms of refractive index and absorption coefficient, and compared with simulation results. Also, virus quantification regarding various concentrations of the viruses was performed, showing a clear linearity. The proposed sensitive and selective THz detection method can provide abundant information of detected biomaterials to help deep understanding of fundamental optical characteristics of them, suggesting rapid diagnosis way especially useful for such dangerous and time-sensitive target biomaterials.
作为一种用于生物材料快速检测的候选技术，太赫兹（THz）光谱系统在无损、无标记和非接触检测方面具有一定优势。由于蛋白质 - 配体结合能处于太赫兹频段，特别是分子相互作用中最重要的构象信息能够被太赫兹电磁波捕获。基于太赫兹时域光谱系统，制备了太赫兹纳米超材料传感芯片以大幅提高检测灵敏度。设计了一种超材料传感芯片，通过超材料的组成来增强目标样品的吸收截面，这与透射太赫兹近场增强相关。然后根据折射率和吸收系数对测得的太赫兹光学特性进行分析，并与模拟结果进行比较。此外，还对不同浓度的病毒进行了病毒定量分析，呈现出明显的线性关系。所提出的灵敏且具有选择性的太赫兹检测方法能够提供被检测生物材料的丰富信息，有助于深入了解它们的基本光学特性，为这类危险且对时间敏感的目标生物材料提供了特别有用的快速诊断方法。
