Multiplexed plasmonic nanoantennas for high throughput single molecule nanoscale dynamics in living cells

Abstract: Single molecule detection has revolutionised the fields of chemistry and biology by offering powerful ways to study individual molecules under different scenarios. Nanophotonic structures, including plasmonic antennas, significantly overcome the concentration limit at which single molecule events can be observed, enabling their detection at concentrations that are relevant to biological and chemical processes. Although antennas can be fabricated in large arrays, probing dynamic events requires high temporal resolution, which is best achieved by serial antenna interrogation. Unfortunately, this precludes the simultaneous recording from multiple antennas at different sample locations, and is time consuming, resulting in poor statistics and low-throughput data acquisition, abating the true potential of arrays. Here we exploit arrays of antenna-in-box nanostructures in combination with sCMOS readout to interrogate nanoscale volumes from 225 antennas simultaneously. Recording at 1 kHz allowed multiplexed dynamic measurements from 50 nanoantennas simultaneously with a temporal resolution dictated by the camera framerate and the photons emitted per molecule during a single passage. We demonstrate the capability for high-throughput arrayed detection of single molecule dynamics at the nanoscale in the membrane of living cells, and determine the axial location of membrane molecular components with 1 nm accuracy and temporal resolution below 1 ms.