title: Light-driven nanoscale plasmonic motors.
abstract: When Sir William Crookes developed a four-vaned radiometer, also known as the light-mill, in 1873, it was believed that this device confirmed the existence of linear momentum carried by photons, as predicted by Maxwell's equations. Although Reynolds later proved that the torque on the radiometer was caused by thermal transpiration, researchers continued to search for ways to take advantage of the momentum of photons and to use it for generating rotational forces. The ability to provide rotational force at the nanoscale could open up a range of applications in physics, biology and chemistry, including DNA unfolding and sequencing and nanoelectromechanical systems. Here, we demonstrate a nanoscale plasmonic structure that can, when illuminated with linearly polarized light, generate a rotational force that is capable of rotating a silica microdisk that is 4,000 times larger in volume. Furthermore, we can control the rotation velocity and direction by varying the wavelength of the incident light to excite different plasmonic modes.
authors.affiliation: NSF Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zentgraf
authors.forename: Yongmin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bartal
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods; D004735:Energy Transfer / Q000528:radiation effects; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects; D008027:Light; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation / Q000528:radiation effects; D009038:Motion; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010316:Particle Size; D017785:Photons; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D006046:Gold