IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v469y2011i7330d10.1038_nature09698.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Probing the electromagnetic field of a 15-nanometre hotspot by single molecule imaging

Author

Listed:
  • Hu Cang

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California)

  • Anna Labno

    (NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California
    Biophysics Program, University of California Berkeley)

  • Changgui Lu

    (NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California)

  • Xiaobo Yin

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California)

  • Ming Liu

    (NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California)

  • Christopher Gladden

    (NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California)

  • Yongmin Liu

    (NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California)

  • Xiang Zhang

    (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    NSF Nano Scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California)

Abstract

Mapping electromagnetic hotspots It is well known that hotspots can appear on rough metallic surfaces exposed to light, where the incident light is concentrated on the nanometre scale to produce an intense electromagnetic field. This 'surface enhancement' effect can be used, for example, to detect molecules, because weak fluorescence signals are strongly enhanced by the hotspots. Such hotspots are associated with localized electromagnetic modes, caused by the randomness of the surface texture, but the detailed profile of the local electromagnetic field is so far unknown. Cang et al. now describe an ingenious experiment that exploits the Brownian motion of single molecules to probe the local field. They succeed in imaging the fluorescence enhancement profile of single hotspots on the surface of aluminium thin-film and silver nanoparticle clusters with accuracy down to 1 nm, and find that the field distribution in a hotspot follows an exponential decay.

Suggested Citation

  • Hu Cang & Anna Labno & Changgui Lu & Xiaobo Yin & Ming Liu & Christopher Gladden & Yongmin Liu & Xiang Zhang, 2011. "Probing the electromagnetic field of a 15-nanometre hotspot by single molecule imaging," Nature, Nature, vol. 469(7330), pages 385-388, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:469:y:2011:i:7330:d:10.1038_nature09698
    DOI: 10.1038/nature09698
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09698
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature09698?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:469:y:2011:i:7330:d:10.1038_nature09698. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.