B.J. Luff

Manipulation of colloidal gold nanoparticles in the evanescent field of a channel waveguide

Colloidal gold spheres of radius 10 nm are reported to move forward in water, under the influence of radiation pressure forces, due to the evanescent field at the surface of an optical channel waveguide. The velocity is linearly dependent upon the optical power in the waveguide, acquiring a maximum velocity of 4 μm/s for modal power of 500 mW in the TM polarization at a wavelength of λ=1.047 μm.

Detection of glucose via electrochemiluminescence in a thin-layer cell with a planar optical waveguide

Light generated by luminol electrochemiluminescence is coupled into a simple planar optical waveguide and is collected with a photomultiplier tube and a photon counter unit. The waveguide is mounted to a thin-layer cell which is connected to a flow injection analysis system. The waveguide is coated with indium tin oxide and modified with covalently attached glucose oxidase. The range of detection for glucose is 0-10 mM (correlation coefficient r = 0.9974), with a detection limit of 0.3 mM.

Forces on a Rayleigh particle in the cover region of a planar waveguide

We report on the optimization of a waveguide structure for the maximization of the radiation forces exerted on a Rayleigh particle in the cover region. The two main radiation forces involved are the transverse gradient force which attracts a particle into the waveguide and the combined scattering and dissipative forces which drive the particle forward along the channel. The dependence of these forces on parameters including the incident wavelength, the surrounding medium embedding the particles, and the polarizability of the particles is discussed. Both dielectric and metallic gold spheres of radius 10 nm are considered in the model. Special emphasis is devoted to the maximization of the transverse gradient force due to the optical intensity gradient at the waveguide surface, and the wavelength dependence of the polarizability of gold nanoparticles.