Thermoplasmonic Manipulation for the Study of Single Polymers and Protein Aggregates

Abstract

AbstractHeat generation by means of plasmonic structures, which is at the heart of thermoplasmonics, has stimulated intense research on the manipulation of matter in liquid environments. Tiny noble metal structures with dimensions of a few tens of nanometers thereby serve as heat sources generating large temperature gradients. As a result, thermophoretic drifts occur, concentration fields form, or charge separation takes place. But also hydrodynamic boundary flows, which play an important role in microfluidic environments, can be induced. These processes remotely triggered by optically generated local dynamic temperature fields offer novel possibilities for manipulating and studying not only colloids but in particular also single molecules and their aggregates in solution.