50 research outputs found
Molecular coupling of light with plasmonic waveguides
We use molecules to couple light into and out of microscale plasmonic
waveguides. Energy transfer, mediated by surface plasmons, from donor molecules
to acceptor molecules over ten micrometer distances is demonstrated. Also
surface plasmon coupled emission from the donor molecules is observed at
similar distances away from the excitation spot. The lithographic fabrication
method we use for positioning the dye molecules allows scaling to nanometer
dimensions. The use of molecules as couplers between far-field and near-field
light offers the advantages that no special excitation geometry is needed, any
light source can be used to excite plasmons and the excitation can be localized
below the diffraction limit. Moreover, the use of molecules has the potential
for integration with molecular electronics and for the use of molecular
self-assembly in fabrication. Our results constitute a proof-of-principle
demonstration of a plasmonic waveguide where signal in- and outcoupling is done
by molecules.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
High-Yield of Memory Elements from Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors with Atomic Layer Deposited Gate Dielectric
Carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNT FETs) have been proposed as
possible building blocks for future nano-electronics. But a challenge with CNT
FETs is that they appear to randomly display varying amounts of hysteresis in
their transfer characteristics. The hysteresis is often attributed to charge
trapping in the dielectric layer between the nanotube and the gate. This study
includes 94 CNT FET samples, providing an unprecedented basis for statistics on
the hysteresis seen in five different CNT-gate configurations. We find that the
memory effect can be controlled by carefully designing the gate dielectric in
nm-thin layers. By using atomic layer depositions (ALD) of HfO and
TiO in a triple-layer configuration, we achieve the first CNT FETs with
consistent and narrowly distributed memory effects in their transfer
characteristics.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; added one reference, text reformatted with
smaller addition
Trapping of 27 bp - 8 kbp DNA and immobilization of thiol-modified DNA using dielectrophoresis
Dielectrophoretic trapping of six different DNA fragments, sizes varying from
the 27 to 8416 bp, has been studied using confocal microscopy. The effect of
the DNA length and the size of the constriction between nanoscale fingertip
electrodes on the trapping efficiency have been investigated. Using finite
element method simulations in conjunction with the analysis of the experimental
data, the polarizabilities of the different size DNA fragments have been
calculated for different frequencies. Also the immobilization of trapped
hexanethiol- and DTPA-modified 140 nm long DNA to the end of gold
nanoelectrodes was experimentally quantified and the observations were
supported by density functional theory calculations.Comment: 17 pages (1 column version), 8 figure
Modeling optical constants from the absorption of organic thin films using a modified Lorentz oscillator model
Optical constants of organic thin films can be evaluated using the Lorentz oscillator model (LOM) which fails to fit inhomogeneously broadened absorption of highly concentrated molecular films. In modified LOM (MLOM), the inhomogeneous broadening is implemented through a frequency-dependent adjustable broadening function. In this work, we evaluate the optical constants of rhodamine 6G doped poly-vinyl alcohol thin films with varying doping concentration (including also extensively high concentrations) using MLOM, which outperforms LOM by showing a better agreement with the experimental results. Our proposed method provides a way to accurately determine optical constants of isotropic organic thin films only from their absorption spectra without spectroscopic ellipsometry.Peer reviewe
DNA-Based Enzyme Reactors and Systems
Peer reviewe
Modeling optical constants from the absorption of organic thin films using a modified Lorentz oscillator model
Optical constants of organic thin films can be evaluated using the Lorentz oscillator model (LOM) which fails to fit inhomogeneously broadened absorption of highly concentrated molecular films. In modified LOM (MLOM), the inhomogeneous broadening is implemented through a frequency-dependent adjustable broadening function. In this work, we evaluate the optical constants of rhodamine 6G doped poly-vinyl alcohol thin films with varying doping concentration (including also extensively high concentrations) using MLOM, which outperforms LOM by showing a better agreement with the experimental results. Our proposed method provides a way to accurately determine optical constants of isotropic organic thin films only from their absorption spectra without spectroscopic ellipsometry
Plasmonic nanostructures through DNA-assisted lithography
Programmable self-assembly of nucleic acids enables the fabrication of custom, precise objects with nanoscale dimensions. These structures can be further harnessed as templates to build novel materials such as metallic nanostructures, which are widely used and explored because of their unique optical properties and their potency to serve as components of novel metamaterials. However, approaches to transfer the spatial information of DNA constructions to metal nanostructures remain a challenge. We report a DNA-assisted lithography (DALI) method that combines the structural versatility of DNA origami with conventional lithography techniques to create discrete, well-defined, and entirely metallic nanostructures with designed plasmonic properties. DALI is a parallel, high-throughput fabrication method compatible with transparent substrates, thus providing an additional advantage for optical measurements, and yields structures with a feature size of ~10 nm. We demonstrate its feasibility by producing metal nanostructures with a chiral plasmonic response and bowtie-shaped nanoantennas for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. We envisage that DALI can be generalized to large substrates, which would subsequently enable scale-up production of diverse metallic nanostructures with tailored plasmonic features.Peer reviewe