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Nanofibre optic force transducers with sub-piconewton resolution via near-field plasmon–dielectric interactions

Nature Photonics volume 11, pages 352–355 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultrasensitive nanomechanical instruments, including the atomic force microscope (AFM)1,2,3,4 and optical and magnetic tweezers5,6,7,8, have helped shed new light on the complex mechanical environments of biological processes. However, it is difficult to scale down the size of these instruments due to their feedback mechanisms9, which, if overcome, would enable high-density nanomechanical probing inside materials. A variety of molecular force probes including mechanophores10, quantum dots11, fluorescent pairs12,13 and molecular rotors14,15,16 have been designed to measure intracellular stresses; however, fluorescence-based techniques can have short operating times due to photo-instability and it is still challenging to quantify the forces with high spatial and mechanical resolution. Here, we develop a compact nanofibre optic force transducer (NOFT) that utilizes strong near-field plasmon–dielectric interactions to measure local forces with a sensitivity of <200 fN. The NOFT system is tested by monitoring bacterial motion and heart-cell beating as well as detecting infrasound power in solution.

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Figure 1: Nanofibre optic force transducer calibration.
Figure 2: Detection of bacterial motile force.
Figure 3: Acoustic frequency detection.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge X. Qu, W. Zhu, S. Ward and J. Friend for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (ECCS 1150952) and the University of California, Office of the President (UC-LFRP 12-LR-238415). Grant support from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (grant no. RT3-07899) and the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R01EB021857) to S.C. was greatly appreciated. A part of this project was supported by the National Institute on Aging of National Institutes of Health (grant AG028709). This work was performed in part at the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI) of UCSD, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant no. ECCS-1542148).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Fernando Teran Arce

    Present address: Division of Translational and Regenerative Medicine, College of Medicine, and Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, USA

  2. Ilsun Yoon

    Present address: Department of Chemistry, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Republic of Korea

  3. Qian Huang, Joon Lee and Fernando Teran Arce: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Qian Huang, Ilsun Yoon, Pavimol Angsantikul, Josh Villanueva, Soracha Thamphiwatana, Liangfang Zhang, Shaochen Chen & Donald J. Sirbuly

  2. Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Joon Lee, Fernando Teran Arce, Justin Liu, Yuesong Shi, Liangfang Zhang, Shaochen Chen, Ratnesh Lal & Donald J. Sirbuly

  3. Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Fernando Teran Arce, Xuanyi Ma, Shaochen Chen & Ratnesh Lal

  4. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Fernando Teran Arce & Ratnesh Lal

  5. Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Liangfang Zhang

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Contributions

Q.H., I.Y. and D.J.S. designed the project. Q.H., J.Lee and Y.S. fabricated samples and ran the optical experiments. I.Y. and F.T.A. built the AFM-optical system. J.Lee, F.T.A. and Q.H. ran the AFM experiments. P.A. and S.T. prepared the bacteria solution. J.Liu and X.M. prepared the cell samples. Q.H. and D.J.S. wrote the manuscript. J.Lee, F.T.A., J.V., S.C., L.Z. and R.L. helped edit and revise the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald J. Sirbuly.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Huang, Q., Lee, J., Arce, F. et al. Nanofibre optic force transducers with sub-piconewton resolution via near-field plasmon–dielectric interactions. Nature Photon 11, 352–355 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2017.74

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