Nanoscale biomolecular detection limit for gold nanoparticles based on near-infrared response

Gold nanoparticles have been widely used during the past few years in various technical and biomedical applications. In particular, the resonance optical properties of nanometer-sized particles have been employed to design biochips and biosensors used as analytical tools. The optical properties of nonfunctionalized gold nanoparticles and core-gold nanoshells play a crucial role for the design of biosensors where gold surface is used as a sensing component. Gold nanoparticles exhibit excellent optical tunability at visible and near-infrared frequencies leading to sharp peaks in their spectral extinction. In this paper, we study how the optical properties of gold nanoparticles and core-gold nanoshells are changed as a function of different sizes, shapes, composition, and biomolecular coating with characteristic shifts towards the near-infrared region. We show that the optical tenability can be carefully tailored for particle sizes falling in the range 100-150 nm. The results should improve the design of sensors working at the detection limit.