title: Optical trapping of 12 nm dielectric spheres using double-nanoholes in a gold film.
abstract: Optical tweezers have found many applications in biology, but for reasonable intensities, conventional traps are limited to particles >100 nm in size. We use a double-nanohole in a gold film to experimentally trap individual nanospheres, including 20 nm polystyrene spheres and 12 nm silica spheres, at a well-defined trapping point. We present statistical studies on the trapping time, showing an exponential dependence on the optical power. Trapping experiments are repeated for different particles and several nanoholes with different gap dimensions. Unusually, smaller particles can be more easily trapped than larger ones with the double-nanohole. The 12 nm silica sphere has a size and a refractive index comparable to the smallest virus particles and has a spherical shape which is the worst case scenario for trapping.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3P6, Canada.
authors.forename: Yuanjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: Reuven
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gordon
mesh_terms: D001695:Biology / Q000379:methods; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods; D054118:Nanospheres / Q000737:chemistry*; D052898:Optical Tweezers; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D010316:Particle Size; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry; D012031:Refractometry; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D011137:Polystyrenes; D006046:Gold; D012822:Silicon Dioxide