Deterministic manipulation and visualization of near field with ultra-smooth, super-spherical gold nanoparticles by atomic force microscopy

As an alternative way to get sophisticated nanostructures, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to directly manipulate building primitives. In particular, assembly of metallic nanoparticles(NPs) can provide various structures for making various metamolecules. As far, conventionally made polygonal shaped metallic NPs showed non-uniform distribution in size and shape which limit its study of fundamental properties and practical applications. In here, we optimized conditions for deterministic manipulation of ultra-smooth and super-spherical gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by AFM. [1] Lowered adhesion force by using platinum-iridium coated AFM tips enabled us to push super-spherical AuNPs in linear motion to pre-programmed position. As a result, uniform and reliable electric/magnetic behaviors of assembled metamolecules were achieved which showed a good agreement with simulation data. Furthermore, visualization of near field for super-spherical AuNPs was also addressed using photosensitive azo-dye polymers. Since the photosensitive azo-dye polymers can directly record the intensity of electric field, optical near field can be mapped without complicated instrumental setup. [2] By controlling embedding depth of AuNPs, we studied electric field of AuNPs in different configuration.