Plasmonic Coaxial Apertures

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Stanford Reference: 13-031 Abstract Stanford researchers have designed a powerful plasmonic coaxial aperture as a low-power optical trap for nanosized specimens, a regime that is inaccessible with the other designs. This device can stably trap dielectric particles smaller than 10 nm in diameter while keeping the trapping power level below 100 mW. By tapering the thickness of the coaxial dielectric channel, trapping can be extended to sub-2 nm particles. This design constrains particles at the surface of the aperture rather than inside, and allows further particle manipulation and processing. Such capability enables trapping and manipulation of single proteins such as enzymes, and possibly molecules as small as glucose. Stage of Research Inventors demonstrated that coaxial apertures with a 25 nm silica channel can trap particles as small as 5 nm while keeping the required power well below 100 mW. They have also designed an aperture that can trap specific chiral molecules. Applications Trapping and detection of nanoscale particles with end user applications in: Environmental/air pollutant monitoring Optical filters and sensors for sub-10 nm particles Biotech filtering Lab-on-chip products Nanomaterial synthesis and nanostructure assembly Force probes Manipulation of single quantum emitters, proteins, or small molecules Enantiomer separation Advantages High performance trapping of sub-10 nm particles - potentially as small as 2 nm High efficiency / Low optical trapping power - less than 100 mW, theoretically 20 mW Accessibility of trapped particle - the particle is trapped at the surface of the aperture rather than inside it Versatile design – device can be integrated into an optical fiber tip or patterned over a thin metal film to allow for parallel trapping Easily Manufactured Publications Amr A. E. Saleh and Jennifer A. Dionne, "Toward Efficient Optical Trapping of Sub-10-nm Particles with Coaxial Plasmonic Apertures," Nano Letters, 12, 5581-5586 (2012). "NEW OPTICAL TWEEZERS TRAP SPECIMENS JUST A FEW NANOMETERS ACROSS," Stanford Engineering News, published online 4 Dec 2012. Related Web Links Dionne Group Patent Status Issued: 9,281,091 (USA) Date Released 6/27/2016 Related Keywords Optical Trapping   sensors: biosensor   nanophotonics   top pharma companies   screening: biochip   nanotechnology   research tool: enzyme   biosensor   biochip   protein purification and analysis   protein purification   single molecule detection   protein research   protein separation   optical filter   plasmonics   materials: nanoparticle   nanoparticles   instrumentation: spectroscopy   research tool: spectroscopy   spectroscopy   research tool: protein analysis