Nanolithography by plasmonic heating and optical manipulation of gold nanoparticles.
Noble-metal particles feature intriguing optical properties, which can be utilized to manipulate them by means of light. Light absorbed by gold nanoparticles, for example, is very efficiently converted into heat, and single particles can thus be used as a fine tool to apply heat to a nanoscopic area. At the same time, gold nanoparticles are subject to optical forces when they are irradiated with a focused laser beam, which renders it possible to print, manipulate, and optically trap them in two and three dimensions. Here, we demonstrate how these properties can be used to control the polymerization reaction and thermal curing of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) at the nanoscale and how these findings can be applied to synthesize polymer nanostructures such as particles and nanowires with subdiffraction limited resolution.
Photonics and Optoelectronics Group, Department of Physics and CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München , Amalienstraße 54, 80799 Munich, Germany.
Michael
M
Fedoruk
Marco
M
Meixner
Sol
S
Carretero-Palacios
Theobald
T
Lohmüller
Jochen
J
Feldmann