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Proceedings of Spie PROCEEDINGS OF SPIE SPIEDigitalLibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie Forces and torques on the nanoscale: from measurement to applications Giovanni Volpe Downloaded From: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie on 9/28/2017 Terms of Use: https://spiedigitallibrary.spie.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx Invited Paper Forces and Torques on the Nanoscale: From Measurement to Applications Giovanni Volpe* Department of Physics, Bilkent University, Cankaya, Ankara 06800, Turkey ABSTRACT The possibility of measuring microscopic forces down to the femtonewton range has opened new possibilities in fields such as biophysics and nanophotonics. I will review some of the techniques most often employed, namely the photonic force microscope (PFM) and the total internal reflection microscope (TIRM), which are able to measure tiny forces acting on optically trapped particles. I will then discuss several applications of such nanoscopic forces: from plasmonic optical manipulation, to self-propelled microswimmers, to self-organization in large ensembles of particles. Keywords: Optical tweezers, force, torque, Brownian motion, photonic force microscope, total internal reflection microscopy, plasmonics, nanoscience 1. INTRODUCTION Forces and torques – a torque is a vector associated with a twisting force that tends to rotate an object – are used to describe physical interactions. A PFM Bulk TIRM AFM Surface -15 -12 -9 10 10 10 Force resolution [N] Figure 1. Main techniques to measure forces at the nanoscopic scale. The various force-measurement techniques are classified according to their force resolution and the working conditions – surface/bulk – for which they are best suited: atomic force microscopy (AFM), photonic force microscopy (PFM), and total internal reflection microscopy (TIRM). * [email protected]; http://softmatter.bilkent.edu.tr Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation IX, edited by Kishan Dholakia, Gabriel C. Spalding, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8458, 84580F · © 2012 SPIE · CCC code: 0277-786/12/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.929409 Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8458 84580F-1 Downloaded From: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie on 9/28/2017 Terms of Use: https://spiedigitallibrary.spie.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx We all have an intuition about how to deal with our-daily-life forces and torques. In particular, we know how to measure them and how to take advantage of them for our purposes. However, forces and torques are also present at the micrometric and molecular scale. In these cases the behavior of such forces and torques is different from what we are used to: things get much more complex when we move into these weird microscopic domains with less connection with our daily experience. In particular, one thing has to be kept in mind: the thermal noise, responsible for the Brownian diffusion of particles, is omnipresent1. Furthermore, when liquid environment are considered, inertial effects are absent at the microscopic scale due to the overwhelming role of viscosity2,3. Anyway, we do want to deal with these molecular- scale forces and torques, and in particular to measure them. To measure them is crucial for our understanding of the biophysical processes that involve these molecules and for the advancement of nanotechnology. In this article, I will review the basic techniques to measure microscopic forces, in particular the photonic force microscope (PFM) and the total internal reflection microscope (TIRM). Then, I will present some applications to the fields of biophysics, plasmonics, statistical physics and active systems. 2. PHOTONIC FORCE MICROSCOPY Various techniques have been developed to probe the mechanical properties of microsystems. In the early 90s various kinds of scanning probe microscopy were already established. In 1982 Binnig and coworkers invented the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM)4, which permitted one to resolve at the atomic level crystallographic structures and organic molecules. The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was invented in 19865. These instruments have been successfully employed to study biological and nano-fabricated structures, overcoming the traditional diffraction limit of optical microscopes. Furthermore, they developed from pure imaging tools into more general manipulation and measuring tools on the level of single atoms or molecules. However, all these techniques required a macroscopic mechanical device to guide the probe. The advent in 1986 of the first 3D optical trap paved the way towards new kinds of probes. Ashkin demonstrated that the radiation pressure from a focused laser beam is able to trap small particles6. For example, an optical trap is formed when a micron-sized transparent particle whose index of refraction is greater than the surrounding medium is located within a highly focused laser beam. The refracted rays differ in intensity over the volume of the sphere and exert a piconewton scale force on the particle, drawing it towards the region of highest light intensity, and producing an elastic restoring force. The particle settles down near the equilibrium position, but never completely; instead it keeps on jiggling because of the Brownian motion. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8458 84580F-2 Downloaded From: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie on 9/28/2017 Terms of Use: https://spiedigitallibrary.spie.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx bLS DM i position I PD 1 deletion I I _ 1 I D I I II I I I I Sample M0E I I 1 trapping I I I I I _ I T I I I I Laser DM I I I I I CCD M I imaging I L Figure 2. Basic PFM setup. Main components: laser, high-NA objective (O1 ), condenser (O2 ), sample, photodetector (PD), and CCD camera. Other optical components: telescope (T), dichroic mirrors (DM), mirror (M), and illumination light source (LS). In 1993 Ghislain and coworkers devised a new kind of scanning force microscopy using such an optically trapped microsphere as a probe7. This technique was later called Photonic Force Microscope (PFM). The PFM provides the capability of measuring forces in the range from femto- to piconewton. This value is well below the one that can be reached with technique that based on microfabricated mechanical cantilevers8. A photonic force microscope (PFM) can measure forces in the range from few femtonewton to several hundred piconewton and it is particularly suited to address forces acting on particles in the bulk. Therefore, it compliments the range of interactions that can be probed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and total internal reflection microscopy (TIRM). Photonic force microscopy (PFM) is a technique that relies on a single optical tweezers to measure small forces (piconewtons down to femtonwtons). A typical PFM comprises an optical trap that holds a probe – a dielectric or metallic particle of micrometer size, which randomly moves due to Brownian motion in the potential well formed by the optical trap – and a position sensing system. The analysis of this thermal motion provides information about the local forces acting on the particle9. The three-dimensional probe position can be recorded through different devices, which detect the forward or backward scattered light from the particle10. The most commonly used are a quadrant photodiode, a position sensing detector, or a camera. PFM permits one to measure forces down to few femtonewton and also torques down to few femtonewton-nanometers11-21 at a sampling frequency up to 250kHz (recently, employing more sophisticated detectors also sampling frequencies up to 75MHz have been achieved22). 3. TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION MICROSCOPY Total internal reflection microscopy (TIRM) can measure the interaction potentials between a colloidal particle and a wall with femtonewton resolution23,24. The equilibrium distribution of the particle-wall separation distance z is sampled monitoring the intensity I scattered by the Brownian particle under evanescent illumination. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8458 84580F-3 Downloaded From: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie on 9/28/2017 Terms of Use: https://spiedigitallibrary.spie.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx (b) (a) PMT 5 10 15 20 25 30 t[s] (c) 2 1. 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 z[µ.m] 30 o (d) 20 10 o liquid medium nn, 0 0.1 02 0.3 0.4 Z [µ.m] h 4 (e). -se substrate ns o laser o 0.1 02 0.3 0.4 Z [µm] Figure 3. Total Internal Reflection Microscopy (TIRM). (a) Schematic of a typical TIRM setup: a Brownian particle moves in the evanescent electromagnetic field generated by total internal reflection of a laser beam; its scattering is collected by an objective lens; and the scattering intensity is recorded using a photomultiplier (PMT). (b) Typical experimental scattering intensity time-series (polystyrene particle in water, R = 1.45μm). (c) Exponential intensity-distance relation (β = 120nm). (d) Particle position distribution (acquisition time 1200s, sampling rate 500Hz). (e) Experimental (dots) and theoretical (line) potential obtained from the position distribution using the Boltzmann factor. Reproduced from Ref. 25. From the potential one can determine the distance-resolved interaction potential and corresponding forces with femtonewton resolution. The central point of the data analysis is the a priori knowledge of the relation between the measured scattering intensity I and the corresponding particle distance z. For short penetration depths of the evanescent field, it has been demonstrated that I(z) exp(−z/d). This, however, poses considerable constraints to the experimental conditions and the range of forces where TIRM can be applied. We introduced a method to experimentally determine I(z) by making solely use of the distance-dependent hydrodynamic interactions between the particle and the wall25. We demonstrated that our method largely extends the range of conditions accessible with TIRM, and even allows measurements on highly reflecting gold surfaces where multiple reflections lead to large deviations from an exponential I(z) relationship. soo- 500ms 200 - Figure 4. Brownian particle diffusing near a wall. A Brownian particle (drawn not to scale) diffuses near a wall. Its trajectory perpendicular to the wall is measured with TIRM using an evanescent electromagnetic field (red).
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