Optical microscopes are incredibly powerful tools for studying the microscale, but suffer from a fundamental resolution limit, which prevents us from resolving objects smaller than roughly half the wavelength of light. This presents a challenge when studying plasmonic (or other) nanoparticles because these objects are inherently smaller than the wavelength of light. Our lab uses a suite of super-resolution imaging tools, from our own CLocK technique to more widespread fluorescence-based strategies, in order to defeat this fundamental resolution limit and peer into the nanoscale.
Z.J. O’Dell, M. Knobeloch, S.E. Skrabalak, K.A. Willets
Nano Lett. 24, 7269 (2024)
J.W. Monaghan, Z.J. O’Dell, S. Sridhar, B. Paranzino, V. Sundaresan, K.A. Willets
J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 13, 10527 (2022)
Ligands are often added to the surface of plasmonic nanoparticles to impart function. We study the uniformity and dynamics of ligand binding on the surface of plasmonic nanoparticles by using fluorescently-tagged ligands and tracking them with super-resolution imaging.
X. Cheng, T.P. Anthony, C.A. West, Z. Hu, V. Sundaresan, A.J. McLeod, D.J. Masiello, K.A. Willets
J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10, 1394 (2019)