Optical traps have applications in various disciplines of science specifically biology (cells) and physics (statistical physics). The goal of this project is to measure the force constants of gold nanoparticles of various sizes utilizing the equipartition and power spectral density method with enhancement of force constants through plasmonic resonance of gold nanobars. The current gold nanoparticles being analyzed lie in 40-60 nm range, however larger and smaller particles can be trapped. Synthesized particles are trapped using a 1064 nm laser in combination with a high numerical aperture resulting in a tight focus of the beam. Experiments involve modifying the setup of the optical table to include a galvo scanning mirror to measure force constants. Potential benefits of this research are to allow for the isolation of single particles to perform single particle optical spectroscopy on both organic and inorganic nanostructures. Isolation of single particles allows for the analysis of a particle to see individual behaviors of various sizes in a solution. Results from measuring the force constant of the trap will be presented.<br/>

Manipulation of gold nanostructures for imaging applications using a single-beam optical trap

2019 Spring National Meeting

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