3D manipulation with scanning near field optical nanotweezers

Recent advances in Nanotechnologies have prompted the need for tools to accurately and non-invasively manipulate individual nano-objects. Among possible strategies, optical forces have been foreseen to provide researchers with nano-optical tweezers capable to trap a specimen and move it in 3D. In practice though, the combination of weak optical forces involved and photothermal issues have thus far prevented their experimental realization. Here, we demonstrate first 3D optical manipulation of single 50 nm dielectric objects with near field nano-tweezers. The nano-optical trap is built by engineering a bowtie plasmonic aperture at the extremity of a tapered metal-coated optical fiber. Both the trapping operation and monitoring are performed through the optical fiber making these nano-tweezers totally autonomous and free of bulky optical elements. The achieved trapping performances allow for the trapped specimen to be moved over tens of micrometers during several minutes with very low in-trap intensities. This novel non-invasive approach is foreseen to open new horizons in nanosciences by offering an unprecedented level of control of nano-sized objects including heat-sensitive bio-specimens.