Silver‐Nanowire‐Based Interferometric Optical Tweezers for Enhanced Optical Trapping and Binding of Nanoparticles

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 29; no. 7
• Main Authors: Nan, Fan, Yan, Zijie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 14-02-2019
• Subjects: Antennas; Arrays; Assembly; Binding; colloidal nanoparticles; Gold; interferometric optical tweezers; Interferometry; Laser beams; Light; Materials science; Nanoparticles; Nanowires; optical binding; Optical trapping; Polystyrene resins; self‐assembly; Silver
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201808258

Light‐induced self‐assembly offers a new route to build mesoscale optical matter arrays from nanoparticles (NPs), yet the low stability of optical matter systems limits the assembly of large‐scale NP arrays. Here it is shown that the interferometric optical fields created by illuminating a single Ag nanowire deposited on a coverslip can enhance the electrodynamic interactions among NPs. The Ag nanowire serves as a plasmonic antenna to shape the incident laser beam and guide the optical assembly of colloidal metal (Ag and Au) and dielectric (polystyrene) NPs in solution. By controlling the laser polarization direction, both the mesoscale interactions among multiple NPs and the near‐field coupling between the NPs and nanowire can be tuned, leading to large‐scale and stable optical matter arrays consisting of up to 60 NPs. These results demonstrate that single Ag nanowires can serve as multifunctional antennas to guide the optical trapping and binding of multiple NPs and provide a new strategy to control electrodynamic interactions using hybrid nanostructures.
A single silver nanowire allows for the creation of an interferometric optical field to guide the self‐organization of colloidal nanoparticles in a spatially extended and linearly polarized laser beam. As a result, large‐scale ordered hexagonal arrays can be assembled from nanoparticles in solution by controlling the polarization direction of incident light.