tethers, plasmon, biosensor applications, detector formats, materials research, diagnostic applications, bioterror, pathogens, dendrimer molecules, biomolecules, surface plasmon resonance, spr, quartz crystal microbalance, qcm, atomic force microscopy, gold nanoparticle, fluorophores, fiber optic, wave guide sensors, nitride, dye terminus, genomic probes, proteomic microarray probes, electrophoresis, blot probes, antibodies