BM32017/10.26125/bmeb-zn07

Control, manipulation and measurement of matter at the molecular scale

Author(s): Madhavi Krishnan

Publication: Bunsenmagazin, Issue 3 2017, Aspekte, Seiten: 111 - 121

Publisher: Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für physikalische Chemie e.V., Frankfurt

Language: English

DOI: 10.26125/bmeb-zn07

 

Introduction

The desire to “freely suspend the constituents of matter” in order to study their behaviour can be traced back over 200 years to the diaries of Lichtenberg. From radio-frequency ion traps to optical tweezing of colloidal particles, existing methods to trap matter in free space or solution rely on the use of external  fields that often strongly perturb the integrity of a macromolecule in solution. Recently, we introduced the electrostatic fluidic trap, a “field-free” principle that supports stable, non-destructive confinement of single macromolecules in room temperature fluids, representing a paradigm shift in a nearly century-old field. The spatio-temporal dynamics of a single electrostatically trapped molecule reveals fundamental information on its properties, e.g., size and electrical charge. We have recently developed the ability to measure the electrical charge of a single macromolecule in solution with a precision much better than a single elementary charge. Since the electrical charge of a macromolecule in solution is in turn a strong function of its 3D conformation, our approach enables for the first time precise, general measurements of the relationship between 3D structure and electrical charge of a single macromolecule, in real time. In a related sphere of activity we use external electrical and optical forces in conjunction with our trap in order to achieve digital functionalities such as data storage and signal gating in a single levitating colloidal particle. In this Article we provide an overview of key experiments and advances in this emerging area of single particle/molecule science and briefly discuss prospects for future research.

The ability to trap an object in space, whether a single atom or a macroscopic entity, is of primary importance in fields ranging from quantum optics [1] to soft condensed matter physics, biophysics, and clinical medicine[2]. Many sophisticated methodologies have been developed to counter the randomizing effect of Brownian motion in solution[3-10], but stable trapping of nanometric objects remains challenging[8-10]. For example, traditional optical tweezing relies on the polarizability of the object of interest. Since polarizability scales as the volume of the particle the approach rapidly loses efficacy with decreasing object size and is unsuitable for manipulating small macromolecules. More recently, traps exploiting the optical near-field in plasmonic nanostructures have achieved the ability to spatially confine single macromolecules[10, 11]. However the interaction of strong local electromagnetic fields with a soft, deformable entity such as a macromolecule causes unfolding and structural deformation of the object of interest. [...]

 

Cite this: Madhavi Krishnan (2017): Control, manipulation and measurement of matter at the molecular scale. Bunsenmagazin 2017, 3: 111-121. Frankfurt am Main: Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für physikalische Chemie e.V. DOI: 10.26125/bmeb-zn07

 

 

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