2024/04/26 by Theodoros D. Bouloumis, Bouloumis, Theodoros D., Hao Zhao +11
Engineering · Materials Science · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #FOS: Physical sciences #Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications #Molecular Communication and Nanonetworks #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.17307
openalex publication_date 2024/04/26 · openalex created_date 2024/04/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In recent years, plasmonic optical tweezers have been used to trap nanoparticles and study interactions with their environment. An unavoidable challenge is the plasmonic heating due to resonant excitation and the resulting temperature rise in the surrounding environment. In this work, we demonstrate trapping of custom-synthesized 20 nm nanoparticles based on molecular graphene quantum dots using metamaterial plasmonic tweezers. Superior trap stiffness values as high as 8.8 (fN/nm)/(mW/μm2) were achieved with optical intensities lower than 1 mW/μm2. By gradually increasing the laser intensity we identified a critical value beyond which the stiffness values dropped significantly. This value corresponded to a temperature rise of about 16oC, evidently sufficient to create thermal flows and disrupt the trapping performance. We, therefore, identified a safe intensity regime for trapping nanoparticles without unwanted heat. Our platform can be used for efficient nanopositioning of fluorescent particles and quantum emitters in an array configuration, potentially acting as a single-photon source configuration.