Silver-coated near field optical scanning microscope probes fabricated by silver mirror reaction

In this paper, a silver-coated fiber optic nanoprobe is fabricated using silver mirror reaction. Effects of different coating conditions on thickness, uniformity and optical properties of the coated nanoprobes are investigated. In comparison to thermal vacuum evaporation methods, the approach in this work is simpler, less expensive, more reproducible and particularly suitable for coating a long nanoprobe with a low taper angle. While the silver coating is characterized by high uniformity and good stability, the coated nanoprobe demonstrates great optical properties and capability of [Ca2+] detection in a single smooth muscle cell, rendering promising potential applications for optical biosensors in intracellular/intercellular biological substrate detection for single cell analysis.