Dynamic optical trapping with gold nanoparticles

In this project, we will develop fully dynamic multiple-plasmonic nanoprobes for labelfree biosensing based on a combination of multiple-beam far-field optical tweezers and near-field plasmonics nanotweezers. Specifically, a holographic multi-beam optical tweezer system will be first built, in which multiple trapping beams will generated by spatial light modulator (SLM) to trap Au Nanorods. As the same time, the Au Nanorods serve as dynamic plasmonic nanotweezers to capture and detect subwavelength colloids (including bioanalyses) in solution at low, biologically benign optical density due to their strong near-field effect (for which forms a gradient of optical force around the nanorods and enhances surface resonance to increase sensitivity). This strategy can be integrated into lab-on-chip platform for high-throughput bio-screening.