UNDERSTANDING OPTICAL PRINTING

GARGIULO, JULIÁN; VIOLI, IANINA L.; CORTÉS, EMILIANO; BRICK, THOMAS; HERRERA, FACUNDO C.; SHIBANUMA, TOSHIHIKO; ALBELLA, PABLO; MAIER, STEFAN A.; STEFANI, FERNANDO D.

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; FRONTIERS IN PHYSICAL SCIENCES HUMBOLDT KOLLEG; 2019

In the last decades, a vast quantity of protocols were stablished for the synthesis of colloidal metallic nanoparticles of different materials, shapes and sizes. Developing an efficient technic for immobilization of this particles into specific positions of a surface is a hot topic and an open challenge. Optical printing is a powerful all-optical method that can accomplish this goal without the need of sophisticated equipment like SEM or AFM microscopes. Furthermore, since it is based on optical forces and the interaction of light with nanoparticles is size and composition dependent, the technique has a strong potential for selective deposition, sorting and a great versatility for combination of different particles. Here, we present a systematic study of the precision and resolution of Optical Printing, its limitations and perspectives, based on our measurements and theoretical considerations.We discuss the maximum achievable precision for the immobilization of a single particle onto a surface and the experimental parameters influencing it. We study various regimes, using light at or far from plasmon resonance for Ag and Au nano spheres.We also discuss the minimum reachable interparticle distances, toward the fabrication of functional nanostructures and microcircuits. We show that strong photohermal forces can hinder the assembly of nanoparticle dimers and present several strategies to overcome this obstacle. Finally, we demonstrate for the first time the optical printing of connected nanoparticles with well-defined orientation