We demonstrate an opto-thermomechanical (OTM) nanoprinting method that allows us not only to additively print nanostructures with sub-100 nm accuracy but also to correct printing errors for nanorepairing under ambient conditions. Different from other existing nanoprinting methods, this method works when a nanoparticle on the surface of a soft substrate is illuminated by a continuous-wave (cw) laser beam in a gaseous environment. The laser heats the nanoparticle and induces a rapid thermal expansion of the soft substrate. This thermal expansion can either release a nanoparticle from the soft surface for nanorepairing or transfer it additively to another surface in the presence of optical forces for nanoprinting with sub-100 nm accuracy. Details of the printing mechanism and parameters that affect the printing accuracy are investigated. This additive OTM nanoprinting technique paves the way for rapid and affordable additive manufacturing or 3D printing at the nanoscale under ambient conditions.
Single-molecule detection has become an indispensable technology in life science, and medical research. In order to get meaningful information on many biological processes, single-molecule analysis is required in micro-molar concentrations. At such high concentrations, it is very challenging to isolate a single molecule with conventional diffraction-limited optics. Recently, optical aperture nanoantennas (OANs) have emerged as a powerful tool to enhance the single-molecule detection under a physiological environment. The OANs, which consist of nano-scale apertures on a metallic film, have the following unique properties: (1) nanoscale light confinement; (2) enhanced fluorescence emission; (3) tunable radiation pattern; (4) reduced background noise; and (5) massive parallel detection. This review presents the fundamentals, recent developments and future perspectives in this emerging field.
Gold nanoparticles reduced and stabilized by sodium squarate in water that attach to cellulose fibers and catalyse the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) with sodium borohydride.
In this article,
a mechanism for quick release and transfer of
gold nanoparticles (GNPs) from a soft substrate to another substrate
under laser illumination is investigated. The heating of GNPs on a
soft substrate with a continuous-wave laser causes a rapid thermal
expansion of the substrate, which can be used to selectively release
and place GNPs onto another surface. In-plane and out-of-plane nanostructures
are successfully fabricated using this method. This rapid release-and-place
process can be used for additive nonmanufacturing of metallic nanostructures
under ambient conditions, which paves a way for affordable nanomanufacturing
and enables a wide variety of applications in nanophotonics, ultrasensitive
sensing, and nonlinear plasmonics.
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