We have used a super resolution technique, ground state depletion with individual molecule return, to map the location of multiple fluorescently-labeled-double-stranded-DNA that are bound to the surface of a gold nanorod. This optical technique provides a method for defeating the diffraction limit of light by allowing for the characterization of the shape, size, and orientation of the underlying single gold nanorod. The technique also allows us to observe the heterogeneous manner of how ligands bind to gold nanorods at a single particle level, offering information that is not attainable with ensemble studies. We have also observed that the size of the super-resolution reconstructed nanorod images are usually smaller than expected, which we hypothesize is due to the amount of plasmonic coupling between the gold nanorod and florescent label. In order to explore this observation we can tune the length of the double-stranded-DNA or the florescent label to control the amount of coupling that is likely to occur.

Triplet-state mediated super-resolution imaging of fluorescently-labeled gold nanorods

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.