Optical spectroscopy of single trapped metal nanoparticles in solution

Abstract

We present a simple method for the optical manipulation and spectroscopy of colloidal silver nanoparticles in aqueous solution using optical tweezers combined with dark-field microscopy. Because of their localized plasmon resonances, single trapped metal nanoparticles can be used as efficient near-field optical probes, with potential applicability in surface-enhanced spectroscopy, near-field microscopy, and biochemical sensing schemes. As a proof of principle, we study the near-field optical interaction between a trapped and an immobilized Ag nanoparticle