The resonance of ions in nanocrystals develops a strong optical trapping force. Credit: Dr. Fan Wang
A substantial advance in optical tweezer innovation, established by scientists at the UTS Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices, will assist enhance biomedical research study.
Much like the Jedis in Star Wars usage ‘the force’ to manage things from a range, researchers can utilize light or ‘optical force’ to move really little particles. The creators of this ground-breaking laser innovation, referred to as ‘optical tweezers’, were granted the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics.
Optical tweezers are utilized in biology, medication, and products science to put together and control nanoparticles such as gold atoms. However, the innovation depends on a distinction in the refractive homes of the caught particle and the surrounding environment.
Now researchers have actually found a brand-new strategy that enables them to control particles that have the very same refractive homes as the background environment, conquering a basic technical obstacle.
The research study: ‘Optical tweezers beyond refractive index mismatch using highly doped upconversion nanoparticles’ has actually simply been released in Nature Nanotechnology.
“This breakthrough has huge potential, particularly in fields such as medicine,” states lead co-author Dr. Fan Wang from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
“Traditionally, you need hundreds of milliwatts of laser power to trap a 20 nanometer gold particle. With our new technology, we can trap a 20 nanometer particle using tens of milliwatts of power.”
— Xuchen Shan
“The capability to press, pull and determine the forces of tiny things inside cells, such as hairs of DNA or intracellular enzymes, might result in advances in understanding and dealing with various illness such as diabetes or cancer.
“Traditional mechanical micro-probes used to manipulate cells are invasive, and the positioning resolution is low. They can only measure things like the stiffness of a cell membrane, not the force of molecular motor proteins inside a cell,” he states.
The research study group established a unique technique to manage the refractive homes and luminescence of nanoparticles by doping nanocrystals with rare-earth metal ions.
Having conquer this very first basic obstacle, the group then optimised the doping concentration of ions to accomplish the trapping of nanoparticles at a much lower energy level, and at 30 times increased performance.
“Traditionally, you need hundreds of milliwatts of laser power to trap a 20-nanometer gold particle. With our new technology, we can trap a 20-nanometer particle using tens of milliwatts of power,” states Xuchen Shan, very first co-author and PhD prospect in the UTS School of Electrical and Data Engineering.
“Our optical tweezers also achieved a record high degree of sensitivity or ‘stiffness’ for nanoparticles in a water solution. Remarkably, the heat generated by this method was negligible compared with older methods, so our optical tweezers offer a number of advantages,” he states.
Fellow lead co-author Dr. Peter Reece, from the University of New South Wales, states this proof-of-concept research study is a considerable improvement in a field that is ending up being progressively advanced for biological scientists.
“The prospect of developing a highly-efficient nanoscale force probe is very exciting. The hope is that the force probe can be labeled to target intracellular structures and organelles, enabling the optical manipulation of these structures,” he states.
Distinguished Professor Dayong Jin, Director of the UTS Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD) and a lead co-author, states this work opens brand-new chances for super-resolution practical imaging of intracellular biomechanics.
“IBMD research is focused on the translation of advances in photonics and material technology into biomedical applications, and this type of technology development is well aligned to this vision,” states Professor Jin.
“Once we have answered the fundamental science questions and discovered new mechanisms of photonics and material science, we then move to apply them. This new advance will allow us to use lower-power and less-invasive ways to trap nanoscopic objects, such as live cells and intracellular compartments, for high precision manipulation and nanoscale biomechanics measurement.”
Reference: “Optical tweezers beyond refractive index mismatch using highly doped upconversion nanoparticles” by Xuchen Shan, Fan Wang, Dejiang Wang, Shihui Wen, Chaohao Chen, Xiangjun Di, Peng Nie, Jiayan Liao, Yongtao Liu, Lei Ding, Peter J. Reece and Dayong Jin, 18 February 2021, Nature Nanotechnology.
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-021-00852-0
