Plasmon heating
Controlling temperature on the nanoscale
Calculations from our collaborator David Masiello indicate that exciting nanorod trimers with different wavelengths of light can generate asymmetric temperature changes across the assembly, as shown in the heat maps in the figure at left. The challenge is that the structures are smaller than the diffraction limit of light, so we cannot resolve the individual nanorods in the cluster as they are asymmetrically heated. Our challenge is to measure temperature at the nanoscale.
DNA nanothermometry
We devised a DNA nanothermometry strategy involving three strands of DNA: an anchor strand that binds to the surface of our nanoparticle (blue), a blocking strand that hybridizes to the anchor strand (orange), and an imaging strand that is complementary to the end of the blocking strand and also carries a fluorescent molecule. By monitoring individual fluorescent events associated with binding of the imaging strand, we create temperature-dependent binding curves. We also use super-resolution imaging to reconstruct the images of the underlying nanoparticles.
Related publications
P.A. Reinhardt, A.P. Crawford, C.A. West, G. Delong, S. Link, D.J. Masiello, K.A. Willets
J. Phys. Chem. B. 125, 12197 (2021)
S.A. Hosseini Jebeli, C. West, S.A. Lee, H.J. Goldwyn, C.R. Bilchak, Z. Fakhraai, K.A. Willets, S. Link, D.J. Masiello
Nano Lett. 21, 5386 (2021)
U. Bhattacharjee, C. West, S.A. Hosseini Jebeli, H.J. Goldwyn, X-T Kong, Z. Hu, E.K. Beutler, W-S Chang, K.A. Willets, S. Link, D.J. Masiello
ACS Nano. 13, 9655 (2019)