Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

On-chip single nanoparticle detection and sizing by mode splitting in an ultrahigh-Q microresonator

Nature Photonics volume 4, pages 46–49 (2010)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 February 2010

This article has been updated

Abstract

The ability to detect and size individual nanoparticles with high resolution is crucial to understanding the behaviour of single particles and effectively using their strong size-dependent properties to develop innovative products. We report real-time, in situ detection and sizing of single nanoparticles, down to 30 nm in radius, using mode splitting in a monolithic ultrahigh-quality-factor (Q) whispering-gallery-mode microresonator. Particle binding splits a whispering-gallery mode into two spectrally shifted resonance modes, forming a self-referenced detection scheme. This technique provides superior noise suppression and enables the extraction of accurate particle size information with a single-shot measurement in a microscale device. Our method requires neither labelling of the particles nor a priori information on their presence in the medium, providing an effective platform to study nanoparticles at single-particle resolution.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Experimental set-up and coupled microtoroid cavity–nanoparticle system.
Figure 2: Transmission spectra and the amount of splitting versus number of deposited particles.
Figure 3: Illustration of mode splitting induced by a single nanoparticle in a microtoroid.
Figure 4: Single particle sizing using mode splitting (MS) in a microtoroid resonator.

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 08 January 2010

    In the version of this Letter originally published, The scale bars of the scanning-electron microscope images in Fig. 1 were incorrect: the scale for Fig. 1a should have been 10 μm, and the scale for Fig. 1d should have been 5 μm. In Fig. 2b, the scale of the principal y-axis was incorrect and should have been x10−7. The unit of the y-axis for the inset figure remains as x10−8. These errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions.

References

  1. O'Regan, B. & Grätzel, M. A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films. Nature 353, 737–740 (1991).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Alivisatos, P. The use of nanocrystals in biological detection. Nature Biotechnol. 22, 47–52 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Colvin, V. L. The potential environmental impact of engineered nanomaterials. Nature Biotechnol. 21, 1166–1170 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hoet, P. H., Brüske-Hohlfeld, I. & Salata, O. V. Nanoparticles—known and unknown health risks. J. Nanobiotechnol. 2, 2–12 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Betzig, E., Trautmann, J. K., Harris, T. D., Weiner, J. S. & Kostelak, R. L. Breaking the diffraction barrier: optical microscopy on a nanometric scale. Science 251, 1468–1470 (1991).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Nie, S. M. & Emery, S. R. Probing single molecules and single nanoparticles by surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Science 275, 1102–1106 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Knollenberg, R. G. Measurement of latex particle sizes using scattering ratios in the Rayleigh scattering region. J. Aerosol Sci. 3, 331–345 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Szymanski, W. W., Nagy, A., Czitrovszky, A. & Jani, P. A new method for the simultaneous measurement of aerosol particle size, complex refractive index and particle density. Meas. Sci. Technol. 13, 303–307 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Vahala, K. J. Optical microcavities. Nature 424, 839–846 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Armani, D. K., Kippenberg, T. J., Spillane, S. M. & Vahala, K. J., Ultrahigh-Q toroid microcavity on a chip. Nature 421, 925–928 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Vollmer, F. & Arnold, S. Whispering-gallery-mode biosensing: label-free detection down to single molecules. Nature Meth. 5, 591–596 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Armani, A. M., Kulkarni, R. P., Fraser, S. E., Flagan, R. C. & Vahala, K. J. Label-free, single-molecule detection with optical microcavities. Science 317, 783–787 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Vollmer, F., Arnold, S. & Keng, D. Single virus detection from the reactive shift of a whispering-gallery mode. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 20701–20704 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. White, I. M., Oveys, H. & Fan, X. Liquid-core optical ring-resonator sensors. Opt. Lett. 31, 1319–1321 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Weiss, D. S. et al. Splitting of high-Q Mie modes induced by light backscattering in silica microspheres. Opt. Lett. 20, 1835–1837 (1995).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Gorodetsky, M. L., Pryamikov, A. D. & Ilchenko, V. S. Rayleigh scattering in high-Q microspheres. J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17, 1051–1057 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Kippenberg, T. J., Spillane, S. M. & Vahala, K. J. Modal coupling in travelling-wave resonators. Opt. Lett. 27, 1669–1671 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Mazzei, A. et al. Controlled coupling of counterpropagating whispering-gallery modes by a single Rayleigh scatterer: a classical problem in a quantum optical light. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 173603 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Kippenberg, T. J., Tchebotareva, A. L., Kalkman, J., Polman, A. & Vahala, K. J. Purcell-factor-enhanced scattering from Si nanocrystals in an optical microcavity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 027406 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Chantada, L., Nikolaev, N. I., Ivanov, A. L., Borri, P. & Langbein, W. Optical resonances in microcylinders: response to perturbations for biosensing. J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 25, 1312–1321 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Arnold, S. et al. Whispering-gallery-mode carousel—a photonic mechanism for enhanced nanoparticle detection in biosensing. Opt. Express 17, 6230–6238 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Russell, L. M. & Ming, L. Deliquescence of small particles. J. Chem. Phys. 116, 311–321 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Friedlander, S. K. Smoke, Dust and Haze: Fundamentals of Aerosol Dynamics (Oxford Univ. Press, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Burg, T. P. et al. Weighing of biomolecules, single cells and single nanoparticles in fluid. Nature 446, 1066–1069 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by MAGEEP (McDonnell Academy Global Energy and Environment Partnership) and CMI (Center for Materials Innovation) at Washington University in St. Louis.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Yun-Feng Xiao

    Present address: Present address: State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure, Institute of Modern Optics, Peking University, Beijing, China,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Washington University, St Louis, 63130, Missouri, USA

    Jiangang Zhu, Sahin Kaya Ozdemir, Yun-Feng Xiao, Lina He & Lan Yang

  2. Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University, St Louis, 63130, Missouri, USA

    Lin Li & Da-Ren Chen

Authors
  1. Jiangang Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sahin Kaya Ozdemir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yun-Feng Xiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lin Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Lina He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Da-Ren Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Lan Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

J.Z., S.K.O., L.Y. and D.R.C. designed the experiments and discussed the results and implications. J.Z., S.K.O. and Y.F.X. contributed to the theoretical work. J.Z. conducted the experiments. L.L. and L.H. prepared materials for the experiments. L.Y. and Y.F.X. conceived the experiments. All authors contributed to the writing of the paper. L.Y. and D.R.C. supervised and coordinated the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lan Yang.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zhu, J., Ozdemir, S., Xiao, YF. et al. On-chip single nanoparticle detection and sizing by mode splitting in an ultrahigh-Q microresonator. Nature Photon 4, 46–49 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.237

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.237

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing