Imaging and tracking single plasmonic nanoparticles in 3D background-free with four-wave mixing interferometry

Borri, Paola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7873-3314, Giannakopoulou, Naya, Zoriniants, George, Pope, Iestyn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4104-0389, Masia, Francesco ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4958-410X, Watson, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0250-7852 and Langbein, Wolfgang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9786-1023 2019. Imaging and tracking single plasmonic nanoparticles in 3D background-free with four-wave mixing interferometry. Presented at: SPIE BIOS, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2-7 February 2019. Proceedings Volume 10894, Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine XVI. Optical Coherence Tomography And Coherence Domain Optical Methods In Biomedicine XVI. , vol.108940 SPIE, p. 34. 10.1117/12.2507618

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Abstract

We present a four-wave mixing interferometry technique recently developed by us, whereby single non-fluorescing gold nanoparticles are imaged background-free even inside highly heterogeneous cellular environments, owing to their specific nonlinear plasmonic response. The set-up enables correlative four-wave mixing/confocal fluorescence imaging, opening the prospect to study the fate of nanoparticle-biomolecule-fluorophore conjugates and their integrity inside cells. Beyond imaging, the technique features the possibility to track single particles with nanometric position localization precision in 3D from rapid single-point measurements at 1 ms acquisition time, by exploiting the optical vortex field pattern in the focal plane of a high numerical aperture objective lens. These measurements are also uniquely sensitive to the particle in-plane asymmetry and orientation. The localization precision in plane is found to be consistent with the photon shot-noise, while axially it is limited to about 3nm by the nano-positioning sample stage, with an estimated photon shot-noise limit of below 1 nm. As a proof-of- principle, the axial localization is exploited to track single gold nanoparticles of 25nm radius while diffusing across aqueous pockets in a dense agarose gel, mimicking a relevant biological environment.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item - published (Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy Schools > Biosciences
Publisher:	SPIE
ISBN:	978-151062430-6
ISSN:	1605-7422
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 March 2019
Date of Acceptance:	7 March 2019
Last Modified:	29 Apr 2026 09:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/120693

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