Plasmonically-induced optical force spectroscopy for spatio-temporal control of biomolecular recognition

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25286030
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Nanobioscience
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Hara Masahiko 東京工業大学, 総合理工学研究科(研究院), 教授 (50181003)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YANO Taka-aki 東京工業大学, 総合理工学研究科, 助教 (90600651) ; Hayashi Tomohiro 東京工業大学, 総合理工学研究科, 准教授 (30401574)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ナノバイオ / 光ピンセット / 原子間力顕微鏡 / ナノフォトニクス / プラズモニクス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed a promising method to control biomolecular reactions with the use of optical force originating from plasmonically-induced strong gradient electric field in the vicinity of metallic nanostrucutures. Optical forces generated between two metallic nanostructures were quantitatively and qualitatively characterized by our advanced atomic force microscopy (AFM) with high force sensitivity. The optical forces were significantly dependent on the incident laser wavelength, and size and shape of the metallic nanostructures. The strongly-enhanced optical forces enabled us to increase probability of biomolecular recognition by around 10 %. Finally, as an alternative to the plasmonic structures, dielectric nanostructures with high-refractive index were developed in order to suppress laser-induced heat generation toward non-invasive biomolecular analysis.

Free Research Field

ナノテクノロジー