Leiden University Student Repository

Kettenis, Chris (2017)

Characterization of Single Gold Nanorods with Two-Photon Microscopy

Master thesis | Physics (MSc)

Gold nanorods (GNRs) have unique optical properties. GNRs can be excited in the near-infrared range and their photoluminescence is bright and stable. Because of this, GNRs have a large range of possible applications, including use as labels or as biosensors. For these kinds of applications, it is important to be able to determine a GNR’s properties with high accuracy. Here we characterize single gold nanorods by five properties: their 3D position, plasmon resonance and orientation. The position of GNRs is determined with a sub-nanometer error in x, y and a 3 nm error in z. The surface plasmon resonance wavelength and the orientation of GNRs are determined with errors of <0.1 nm and 0.1 deg respectively. This is achieved by applying a four-dimensional fit to a stack of two-photon photoluminescence images. The methods presented in this thesis can be used to improve accuracy in the aforementioned applications of GNRs.

Gold nanorods

Two-photon microscopy

Surface plasmon resonance

Author

Kettenis, Chris

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Specialisation

Research in Physics, Soft and Biological Matter

Supervisors

Noort, S.J.T. van

ECTS Credits

3

Language

en