Optical tweezers with enhanced efficiency based on laser-structured substrates

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optical nanotrapping system that significantly improves trapping efficiency by utilizing laser-structured silicon substrates with metallic coatings to generate localized plasmonic fields.

Contribution

The study demonstrates a novel substrate design with laser-structured silicon and silver coating that enhances optical trapping forces through localized plasmonic effects.

Findings

Orders of magnitude increase in trapping force

Enhanced quality factor of optical traps

Effective utilization of laser-structured substrates

Abstract

We present an optical nanotrapping setup that exhibits enhanced efficiency, based on localized plasmonic fields around sharp metallic features. The substrates consist of laser-structured silicon wafers with quasi-ordered microspikes on the surface, coated with a thin silver layer. The resulting optical traps show orders of magnitude enhancement of the trapping force and the effective quality factor.