Resolving stable axial trapping points of nanowires in an optical tweezers using photoluminescence mapping

Axially resolved microphotoluminescence mapping of semiconductor nanowires held in an optical tweezers reveals important new experimental information regarding equilibrium trapping points and trapping stability of high aspect ratio nanostructures. In this study, holographic optical tweezers are used to scan trapped InP nanowires along the beam direction with respect to a fixed excitation source and the luminescent properties are recorded. It is observed that nanowires with lengths on the range of 3-15 μm are stably trapped near the tip of the wire with the long segment positioned below the focus in an inverted trapping configuration. Through the use of trap multiplexing we investigate the possibility of improving the axial stability of the trapped nanowires. Our results have important implication for applications of optically assisted nanowire assembly and optical tweezers based scanning probes microscopy. © 2013 American Chemical Society