DNA directed assembly of nanoparticle linear structure for nanophotonics

Assemblies of metal nanospheres have-shown interesting properties for nanophotonics. Here the authors describe a method to use robust DNA multicrossover molecules to organize Au nanoparticles with different sizes to form well controlled linear chain structures with desired distance below 10 nm between the particles. Au particles with only one piece of DNA attached are purified individually. Three different sizes DNA-Au conjugates then hybridize with five other DNA strands to form the stiff triple crossover (TX) motif. The linkage position of Au on the TX motif is designed so that the Au particles are organized in a well controlled linear fashion. Precise control of the distances between the Au particles can be also achieved by design of the linkage position. This arrangement of Au nanoparticle linear structures meets the requirement to construct an efficient nanolens. [DOI: 10.1116/1.3072515]