Reflection mode optical trapping using polarization symmetry breaking from tilted double nanoholes

Accessible Double Nanohole Raman Tweezer Analysis of Single Nanoparticles

Raman spectroscopy allows for material characterization of nanoparticles; however, probing individual nanoparticles requires an efficient way of isolating and enhancing the signal. Past works have used optical trapping with nanoapertures in metal films to measure the Raman spectra of individual nanoparticles; however, those works required custom laser tweezer systems that provided a transmission signal to verify trapping events as well as costly top-down nanofabrication. Here, we trapped Titania nanoparticles in a commercial Raman system using double nanoholes (DNH) and measured their spectra while trapped. The microscope camera allowed for measuring the trapping event in reflection mode, and a simultaneous Raman spectrum was recorded to allow for material characterization. The Raman signal was comparable to a past work that used particles a million times larger in volume without utilizing double nanoholes, and all other features were similar. The DNHs were created with a colloidal lithography technique and identified in the microscope, as confirmed by electron microscopy registration. Therefore, this approach allows a simple way of characterizing the Raman signal of individual nanoparticles while in solution by using existing commercial Raman systems.

Polarization characteristics and transverse spin of Mie scattering

Complicated polarization states in the near field of Mie scattering have aroused wide interest due to their broad potential applications. In this work, we investigated polarization properties, including polarization dimension, degree of nonregularity, and transverse electric-field spin, of scattering of a partially polarized plane wave by a dielectric nanosphere based on the rigorous Mie scattering theory. It is shown that with the decrease of the correlation coefficient, the polarization dimension and degree of nonregularity generally increase. In the limit of unpolarized incident light, a nearly-perfect nonregular polarization state (PN = 0.928) appears in the near field and the spin is transverse to the radial direction everywhere. The rich structure contained by the partially polarized scattered light offers an approach to manipulating the interaction between light and nanoparticles, which may lead to novel designs of nanoantenna, optical trap and sensing.