Plasmon-driven nanowire actuators for on-chip manipulation

Chemically synthesized metal nanowires are promising building blocks for next-generation photonic integrated circuits, but technological implementation in monolithic integration will be severely hampered by the lack of controllable and precise manipulation approaches, due to the strong adhesion of nanowires to substrates in non-liquid environments. Here, we demonstrate this obstacle can be removed by our proposed earthworm-like peristaltic crawling motion mechanism, based on the synergistic expansion, friction, and contraction in plasmon-driven metal nanowires in non-liquid environments. The evanescently excited surface plasmon greatly enhances the heating effect in metal nanowires, thereby generating surface acoustic waves to drive the nanowires crawling along silica microfibres. Advantages include sub-nanometer positioning accuracy, low actuation power, and self-parallel parking. We further demonstrate on-chip manipulations including transporting, positioning, orientation, and sorting, with on-situ operation, high selectivity, and great versatility. Our work paves the way to realize full co-integration of various functionalized photonic components on single chips. Implementing metal nanowires in photonic circuits is challenging due to lack of suitable manipulation techniques. Here, the authors present an earthworm-like peristaltic crawling motion mechanism, based on surface plasmons and surface acoustic waves, and show on-chip manipulations of single nanowires.

Automated summary

The study introduces an earthworm-like peristaltic crawling motion mechanism to manipulate and position metal nanowires in non-liquid environments. This technique offers benefits like high precision, low power consumption, and autonomous parking, paving the way for full integration of various functional photonic components.