Adapting Bobbert-Vlieger model to spectroscopic ellipsometry of gold nanoparticles with bio-organic shells.

We investigate spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry for monitoring biomolecules at surfaces of nanoparticles. For the modeling of polarimetric light scattering off surface-adsorbed core-shell nanoparticles, we employ an extension of the exact solution for the scattering by particles near a substrate presented by Bobbert and Vlieger, which offers insight beyond that of the Maxwell-Garnett effective medium approximation. Varying thickness and refractive index of a model bio-organic shell results in systematic and characteristic changes in spectroscopic parameters [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The salient features and trends in modeled spectra are in qualitative agreement with experimental data for antibody immobilization and fibronectin biorecognition at surfaces of gold nanoparticles on a silicon substrate, but achieving a full quantitative agreement will require including additional effects, such as nanoparticle-substrate interactions, into the model.