Nanoparticle seeded glancing-angle deposition of tip-handle heterostructures for manipulation of individual nanoparticles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to create heterostructures with nanoscale tips on nanowire handles using nanoparticle-seeded glancing angle deposition, enabling precise optical manipulation of individual nanoparticles.

Contribution

It presents a novel nanoparticle-seeded glancing angle deposition technique to fabricate heterostructures for manipulating single nanoparticles.

Findings

Successful fabrication of nanoparticle-nanowire heterostructures.

Optical micromanipulation of the nanowire handles allows control of attached nanoparticles.

Demonstrated manipulation of particles with sub-100 nm dimensions.

Abstract

The controllable handling of an arbitrary single particle of matter with sub-100 nanometer (nm) dimensions is an essential but unsolved scientific challenge. We demonstrate nanoparticle-seeded glancing angle deposition using 10-100 nm diameter nanoparticle seeds (Er2O3, Fe@C, and Fe). The products are nanoparticle-nanowire heterostructures composed of arbitrary nanoscale tips attached to micron-length nanowire handles. Optical micromanipulation of the micron-scale handles enables concurrent manipulation of the attached nanoscale particles of matter.