Integration of plasmonic structures on multimode optical fibers for advanced endoscopic systems: fabrication, characterization, and spatially resolved SERS

Plasmonic structures offer exciting possibilities for biosensors applications, such as neuro-endoscopy. However, the interaction of plasmonic structures with brain cells in an endoscopic fashion requires precise control of the excitation light achievable only through a microscopy-based sensing scheme, where it is possible to finely tune the distribution of intensity and phase of the excitation field. Here we describe the available technological strategies to incorporate plasmonic structures at the tip of multimode optical fibers, tackling both the fabrication and photonic coupling challenges.