Reconfigurable optical assembly of nanostructures

Yunuen Montelongo (), Ali K. Yetisen (), Haider Butt and Seok-Hyun Yun
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Yunuen Montelongo: Imperial College London
Ali K. Yetisen: Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Haider Butt: Microengineering and Nanotechnology Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham
Seok-Hyun Yun: Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Arrangements of nanostructures in well-defined patterns are the basis of photonic crystals, metamaterials and holograms. Furthermore, rewritable optical materials can be achieved by dynamically manipulating nanoassemblies. Here we demonstrate a mechanism to configure plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) in polymer media using nanosecond laser pulses. The mechanism relies on optical forces produced by the interference of laser beams, which allow NPs to migrate to lower-energy configurations. The resulting NP arrangements are stable without any external energy source, but erasable and rewritable by additional recording pulses. We demonstrate reconfigurable optical elements including multilayer Bragg diffraction gratings, volumetric photonic crystals and lenses, as well as dynamic holograms of three-dimensional virtual objects. We aim to expand the applications of optical forces, which have been mostly restricted to optical tweezers. Holographic assemblies of nanoparticles will allow a new generation of programmable composites for tunable metamaterials, data storage devices, sensors and displays.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12002

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