Abstract

Abstract The ability of metallic nanostructures to confine light at the sub-wavelength scale enables new perspectives and opportunities in the field of nanotechnology. Making use of this unique advantage, nano-optical trapping techniques have been developed to tackle new challenges in a wide range of areas from biology to quantum optics. In this work, starting from basic theories, we present a review of research progress in near-field optical manipulation techniques based on metallic nanostructures, with an emphasis on some of the most promising advances in molecular technology, such as the precise control of single biomolecules. We also provide an overview of possible future research directions of nanomanipulation techniques.

Highlights

  • Optical trapping – the ability to manipulate small particles using light – was first recognized by the awarding of a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 to Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D

  • The fluorescence enhancement factor was measured to be up to 140, indicating that the molecules were detected at the 10−9 mol/l level [118]. These results strongly suggest that this plasmonic OT (POT) implementation will provide a novel analytical method to detect a variety of organic molecules

  • The authors noted that their POT design has the potential to be used in lab-on-a-chip devices for efficient particle trapping with high tunability of the Fano resonance wavelength [96]

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Summary

Introduction

Optical trapping – the ability to manipulate small particles using light – was first recognized by the awarding of a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 to Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Photonic crystals are near-field nanostructures with a periodic pattern in dielectric properties These structures can be integrated with microfluidic systems to create a lab-on-a-chip platform. A major advantage of plasmonic nanostructures is that the electromagnetic field enhancement is achieved over a broad range of incident laser wavelengths [34, 35] by modifying the geometry of the structure. Applications of POT in life sciences, especially for the manipulation of biomolecules such as proteins or DNA, are discussed. We provide both a critical view of the research field by summarizing the main conclusions extracted from the state of the art and our perspective of future POT developments and potential applications

Theoretical aspects of plasmonic optical tweezers
B rief review of optical trapping principles in the dipole approximation
B rief theory of SIBA trapping
Advantages and disadvantages of POT
Plasmonic nanostructures
POT on a homogeneous metallic film
P OT on metallic disks
P OT on pyramidal nanostructure
POT on bowtie nanostructures
POT on aperture nanostructures
N anoapertures onto optical waveguides
Nanoapertures arrays
Coaxial nanoapertures
C-shaped nanoapertures
P OT with black-Si plasmonic nanostructures
POT with alternative nanostructure geometries
Perspectives on the future development of plasmonic optical tweezers
Findings
Concluding remarks

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