DNA-Origami-Assembled Rhodium Nanoantennas for Deep-UV Label-Free Single-Protein Detection

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Corduri, Nicco, Veedu, Malavika Kayyil, Yu, Yifan, Zou, Yanqiu, Liu, Jie, Garoli, Denis, Acuna, Guillermo P., Wenger, Jérôme, Kołątaj, Karol
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Corduri, Nicco
Veedu, Malavika Kayyil
Yu, Yifan
Zou, Yanqiu
Liu, Jie
Garoli, Denis
Acuna, Guillermo P.
Wenger, Jérôme
Kołątaj, Karol
author_facet Corduri, Nicco
Veedu, Malavika Kayyil
Yu, Yifan
Zou, Yanqiu
Liu, Jie
Garoli, Denis
Acuna, Guillermo P.
Wenger, Jérôme
Kołątaj, Karol
contents Nanoparticles of plasmonic metals have significantly to the development of spectroscopic techniques, enabling strong confinement of electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale and corresponding signal amplification. However, to date, plasmonic applications have been limited mainly to the visible and near-infrared range, as materials supporting ultraviolet resonances typically exhibit poor chemical stability and lack robust surface functionalisation methods. In this work, we address these limitations by introducing a fully programmable approach to UV plasmonics based on rhodium nanocube dimers assembled using DNA origami templates. We have developed a reliable ligand exchange strategy that allows the functionalisation of rhodium nanocubes with DNA while maintaining their colloidal stability. These DNA-modified nanocubes act as modular building blocks that can be assembled into dimers with 69% efficiency and an average gap size of 10 nm. The DNA origami design also allows for the deterministic placement of a single streptavidin protein in the plasmonic gap, unlike previous methods based on stochastic diffusion. Experiments with single-molecule autofluorescence in UV, supported by numerical simulations, show an increase in brightness of up to 22, a reduction in fluorescence lifetime, and a more than tenfold increase in the total number of detected photons. By creating a robust and versatile platform for the production of UV-resonant plasmonic nanoantennas, this work extends the functionality of plasmonics to the deep UV spectrum and opens up new possibilities for labelling-free single-protein spectroscopy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_03770
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DNA-Origami-Assembled Rhodium Nanoantennas for Deep-UV Label-Free Single-Protein Detection
Corduri, Nicco
Veedu, Malavika Kayyil
Yu, Yifan
Zou, Yanqiu
Liu, Jie
Garoli, Denis
Acuna, Guillermo P.
Wenger, Jérôme
Kołątaj, Karol
Optics
Materials Science
Nanoparticles of plasmonic metals have significantly to the development of spectroscopic techniques, enabling strong confinement of electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale and corresponding signal amplification. However, to date, plasmonic applications have been limited mainly to the visible and near-infrared range, as materials supporting ultraviolet resonances typically exhibit poor chemical stability and lack robust surface functionalisation methods. In this work, we address these limitations by introducing a fully programmable approach to UV plasmonics based on rhodium nanocube dimers assembled using DNA origami templates. We have developed a reliable ligand exchange strategy that allows the functionalisation of rhodium nanocubes with DNA while maintaining their colloidal stability. These DNA-modified nanocubes act as modular building blocks that can be assembled into dimers with 69% efficiency and an average gap size of 10 nm. The DNA origami design also allows for the deterministic placement of a single streptavidin protein in the plasmonic gap, unlike previous methods based on stochastic diffusion. Experiments with single-molecule autofluorescence in UV, supported by numerical simulations, show an increase in brightness of up to 22, a reduction in fluorescence lifetime, and a more than tenfold increase in the total number of detected photons. By creating a robust and versatile platform for the production of UV-resonant plasmonic nanoantennas, this work extends the functionality of plasmonics to the deep UV spectrum and opens up new possibilities for labelling-free single-protein spectroscopy.
title DNA-Origami-Assembled Rhodium Nanoantennas for Deep-UV Label-Free Single-Protein Detection
topic Optics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03770