Brownian fluctuations and heating of an optically aligned gold nanorod

Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Jul 15;107(3):037401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.037401. Epub 2011 Jul 11.

Abstract

We present the first quantitative measurements of the torque exerted on a single gold nanorod in a polarized three-dimensional optical trap. We determined the torque both by observing the time-averaged orientation distribution and by measuring the dynamics of the rotational brownian fluctuations. The measurements are in good agreement with calculations, where the temperature profile around the hot nanorod gives rise to a reduced, effective viscosity. The maximum torque on a 60 nm×25 nm nanorod was 100 pN·nm, large enough to address single-molecule processes in soft and biological matter.