Nanobiophotonics: Using the nanophotonics toolbox to manipulate biological fluorophores

Abstract

We show that nanophotonic manipulation of biological fluorophores can alter the spectral characteristics of visible fluorescent proteins (VFP), and that the changed spectral properties quantitatively reflect the sub surface quality of photonic crystals. Nanophotonic manipulation of VFP fluorescence lifetimes gives access to the quantum efficiency of emitting states without biasing from dark states, a parameter inaccessible to conventional methods.