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Golden nanoparticle in optical tweezers: influence of shape and orientation on optical trapping
Šiler, Martin ; Brzobohatý, Oto ; Chvátal, Lukáš ; Karásek, Vítězslav ; Paták, Aleš ; Pokorná, Zuzana ; Mika, Filip ; Zemánek, Pavel
Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted increased attention in recent years due to various applications of resonant collective oscillations of free electrons excited with light (plasmon resonance). In contrast to bulk metal materials, where this plasmon resonance frequency depends only on the free electron number density, the optical response of gold and silver NPs can be tuned over the visible and near-infrared spectral region by the size and shape of the NP. Precise and remote placement and orientation of NPs inside cells or tissue would provide another degree of control for these applications. A single focused laser beam – optical tweezers – represents the most frequently used arrangement which provides threedimensional (3D) contact-less manipulation with dielectric objects or living cells ranging in size from tens of nanometers to tens of micrometers. It was believed that larger metal NPs behave as tiny mirrors that are pushed by the light beam radiative force along the direction of beam propagation, without a chance to be confined. However, recently several groups have reported successful optical trapping of gold and silver particles as large as 250 nm. We\noffer an explanation based on the fact that metal nanoparticles naturally occur in various nonspherical\nshapes, and their optical properties differ significantly due to changes in localized plasmon excitation.
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