Patent 7906343 was granted and assigned to SRI International on March, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A lanthanide chelate is linked to a noble metal substrate at a proximity wherein the substrate enhances a fluorescent emission of the lanthanide by at least 20-fold when the chelate is illuminated at an excitation wavelength that induces a transition in the lanthanide that results in the fluorescent emission.