Making Permanent Optical Matter of Plasmonic Nanoparticles by in Situ Photopolymerization

Zhenzhen Chen, Fan Nan, Zijie Yan

Laser-induced self-organization of colloidal metal nanoparticles holds great promise in building artificial photonic structures, yet the self-organized nanoparticles (i.e., optical matter) disassemble immediately without the optical field. Here we report an approach for in situ construction of permanent mesoscale structures from optically bound nanoparticles. Metal nanoparticles are trapped by optical tweezers and self-organize into various optical matter structures, which are selectively immobilized by photocurable hydrogels upon additional ultraviolet light illumination. Making permanent optical matter of plasmonic nanoparticles will benefit bottom-up assembly of photonic materials and devices.

DOI