Resonator nanophotonic standing-wave array trap for single-molecule manipulation and measurement

Abstract

Nanophotonic tweezers represent emerging platforms with significant potential for parallel manipulation and measurements of single biological molecules on-chip. However, trapping force generation represents a substantial obstacle for their broader utility. Here, we present a resonator nanophotonic standing-wave array trap (resonator-nSWAT) that demonstrates significant force enhancement. This platform integrates a critically-coupled resonator design to the nSWAT and incorporates a novel trap reset scheme. The nSWAT can now perform standard single-molecule experiments, including stretching DNA molecules to measure their force-extension relations, unzipping DNA molecules, and disrupting and mapping protein-DNA interactions. These experiments have realized trapping forces on the order of 20 pN while demonstrating base-pair resolution with measurements performed on multiple molecules in parallel. Thus, the resonator-nSWAT platform now meets the benchmarks of a table-top precision optical trapping instrument in terms of force generation and resolution. This represents the first demonstration of a nanophotonic platform for such single-molecule experiments.

Boosting Trapping in Dark Mode and Emission in Bright Mode using a Quad‐Nanohole

“…Optical trapping is a technique capable of immobilization and manipulation of micro-/nanoparticles via light-matter momentum exchange. [15,16] Optical nano tweezers relying on the tiny mode volumes of optical nanostructures has demonstrated the trapping of particles with sizes in the 10 nm regime [17] and down, [18,19] and trapping of single quantum dots [20] and even single molecules, [21][22][23][24] providing sufficient trapping capability for light-emitting nanoantenna assembly. [25][26][27][28][29] A majority of optical trapping and in situ PL enhancement works is based on a single-laser setup, i.e., the same laser beam is used for trapping and PL excitation of the particle.…”

Integrated Hybrid Tweezer for Particle Trapping with Combined Optical and Acoustic Forces

“…For particles with sizes in the micrometers and nanometers, there are many types of tweezers, such as optical tweezers (can be used in molecular sensing, precision molecular manipulation, and cell assembly [1,2]), acoustic tweezers (can be used in particle separation, material manufacture, cell transportation, sorting, and enrichment [3]), magnetic tweezers (can be used in parallel single-molecule fluorescence detection measurements and cell transport [4,5]), dielectrophoretic tweezers (can be used in medical diagnostics, material characterization, drug discovery, cell therapeutics, and particle filtration [6]), and plasmonic tweezers (can be used in biomanipulation, spectrographic sensing and imaging, and particle transport and sorting [7]), etc. Various methods based on optics [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], acoustics [20][21][22][23][24], magnetism [4,5,25], dielectrophoresis [6], and plasma [7,26] for the remote driving of particles, have been developed. In 1986, Ashkin proved that particles could be trapped by the gradient force generated by a light beam [27].…”

“…In 1986, Ashkin proved that particles could be trapped by the gradient force generated by a light beam [27]. Optical tweezers are mainly divided into two categories, namely free-space optical tweezers [8][9][10] and near-field optical tweezers [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Free-space optical tweezers mainly include tweezers based on lens group [9], optical fiber tweezers [8], and optical tweezers based on metasurfaces [10].…”

“…Kawata and Sugiura were the first to realize the manipulation of polystyrene microspheres on optical waveguides [28]. Thereafter, many near-field optical tweezers have been reported [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Near-field optical tweezers mainly include optical tweezers based on waveguides and optical tweezers based on resonant cavities.…”

Influence of Single Deuterium Replacement on Frequency of Hydrogen Bond Dissociation in IFNA17 under the Highest Critical Energy Range

“…Experimental study of the DNA structure is difficult because of several problems; the most important of which is the limitation of the spatial resolution of available research tools [ 1 , 2 ]. Despite the development of methods for studying single molecules, they have a few limitations for studying the mechanics of DNA [ 3 , 4 ].…”