Patent ID: 7718422
Filing Date: 2010-05-18
Classification: G01N,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A fluorescence enhancement device comprising a support for carrying fluorescence enhancement means, the fluorescence enhancement means providing a reception surface for chemical or biological elements readable by detection of a fluorescence signal emitted by a fluorophore, associated with the chemical or biological elements, under the effect of an excitation light beam, in which the fluorescence enhancement means is made up of a stack of thin, transparent, dielectric layers providing a mirror function with low, non-radiative losses, allowing an increase of the excitation field of the fluorophore and an increase in the quantity of light emitted thereby and an increase of the fluorescence signal, and a limit of parasitic fluorescence from the substrate, the material of each thin layer of the stack being selected from among the following materials: TiO 2 , Ta 2 O 5 , HfO 2 , ZrO 2 , MgO, SiO 2 , Si 3 N 4 , MgF 2 and YF 3 , in which a thickness e of each thin layer of the stack is determined in accordance with the following equation: where N is the refractive index of the material of the thin layer for wavelength λ of the reading signal and k is an uneven whole number, a free surface of the last thin film of the stack being biologically compatible with probes to be grafted in order to constitute said reception surface.