DNA-programmed self-assembly of photonic nanoarchitectures

Rational design and self-assembly of photonic nanoarchitectures with well-defined structures and geometries allows precisely manipulating light on the nanoscale, which has been the focus of nanophotonics in recent decades. DNA self-assembly is a powerful strategy in constructing desired photonic nanoarchitectures owing to the unique structural features of DNA, such as programmable sequence, predictable structure and precise molecule length (0.34 nm bp (-1)). The high addressability of DNA nanoscaffolds enables fine control over the locations of the photonic building blocks and thus the structure and geometry of the assembled photonic nanoarchitectures, which facilitates the quantitative study of the interactions among these photonic building blocks that are precisely organized on the DNA nanoscaffolds. This review summarizes the recent achievements in DNA- programmed self-assembly of photonic nanoarchitectures, where metallic nanocrystals and semiconductor quantum dots act as building blocks and are assembled into homo- and hetero- nanoarchitectures from one to two and three dimensions.