Plasmon enhanced micromanipulation addresses some of the drawbacks associated with more traditional optical based methods, particularly in regard to the nature of laser excitation required for actuation. The resonant electromagnetic field enhancement observed as a result of the plasmon resonance phenomenon, enables trapping of nanoscale objects, and reduces the risk of photoinduced sample damage by reducing excitation power required for trapping. Plasmon resonance introduces an unavoidable heating effect which hinders stable trapping in microfluidic environments as a result of phenomena such as convection. In this work, the heating associated with plasmon resonance is used constructively, to devise a new micromanipulation technique. Plasmonic nanostructures are patterned on pyroelectric substrates which create an electric field in response to changes in temperature. This electric field results in the generation of local and global electrokinetic phenomena which are used in high throughput trapping of suspended particles. To demonstrate the versatility of this technique, particles are patterned into arbitrary shapes. A suggested application for this technique is as an optically controlled photoresist free lithographic method for use in microfluidic environments.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:716948 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Esan, Olurotimi |
| Publisher | University of Glasgow |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8274/ |
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