Background-Free Detection of Single 5 nm Nanoparticles through Interferometric Cross-Polarization Microscopy
Citation
Hong, X, van Dijk, E, Hall, S, Götte, J, van Hulst, N & Gersen, H, 2011, ‘Background-Free Detection of Single 5 nm Nanoparticles through Interferometric Cross-Polarization Microscopy’. Nano Letters, vol 11., pp. 541 - 547
Abstract
Metal nanoparticles play a key role in sensing and imaging. Here we demonstrate the detection of metal particles down to 5 nm in size with a signal-to-noise ratio of 7 using interferometric cross-polarization microscopy at ultralow excitation powers (1 μW) compatible with single molecule detection. The method is background-free and induces no heating as it operates far from plasmonic resonance. The combination of unlimited observation time and protein-sized metal nanoparticles has great potential for biophysical applications.
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