A plasmonic nanorod that walks on DNA origami

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel plasmonic nanorod that can walk along DNA origami tracks, enabling precise, directional nanoscale motion and optical reporting, advancing nanophotonics and molecular machinery control.

Contribution

It introduces an active plasmonic nanorod walker capable of directional movement and optical feedback on DNA origami, a significant step beyond previous static or less controllable systems.

Findings

Nanorod can walk directionally on DNA origami

Walker reports its steps optically with nanometer accuracy

System enables controlled nanoscale light-matter interaction

Abstract

In nano-optics, a formidable challenge remains in precise transport of a single optical nano-object along a programmed and routed path toward a predefined destination. Molecular motors in living cells that can walk directionally along microtubules have been the inspiration for realizing artificial molecular walkers. Here we demonstrate an active plasmonic system, in which a plasmonic nanorod can execute directional, progressive and reverse nanoscale walking on two or three-dimensional DNA origami.Such a walker comprises an anisotropic gold nanorod as its body and discrete DNA strands as its feet. Specifically, our walker carries optical information and can in situ optically report its own walking directions and consecutive steps at nanometer accuracy, through dynamic coupling to a plasmonic stator immobilized along its walking track. Our concept will enable a variety of smart nanophotonic platforms for studying dynamic light-matter interaction, which requires controlled motion at the nanoscale well below the optical diffraction limit.