SDB BIOTECH

Metal Enhanced Fluorescence

Metal Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF) offers the possibility to dramatically increase the analytical sensitivity of systems based on fluorescence detection. MEF is based on the fact that excitation light interacts with the electrons of metal nano–structures thus generating very high electromagnetic fields (Localised Surface Plasmons, LSPs ) Therefore, such structures are also called ”plasmonic structures” and the combination of (e.g, polymeric) support and structure is known as “plasmonic substrate”. These LSPs lead to an increase in emission output of fluorescent molecules (e.g. fluorescently labelled antibodies) when bound to surfaces with suitable nano-metal structures that can enhance the signal more than 100 times.