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Plasmonics

New twist on nanoscale motors

Linearly polarized light that does not possess any angular momentum can be used to rotate a gold nanostructure that can, in turn, rotate a much larger silica microdisk.

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Figure 1: When a beam of linearly polarized light (green arrows) without any angular momentum strikes a gammadion-shaped gold nanostructure, it is scattered by surface plasmons into a beam that does have angular momentum.

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Hasman, E. New twist on nanoscale motors. Nature Nanotech 5, 563–564 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.156

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