Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-15-2021

Publication Source

Nature Communications

Abstract

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 sur- face 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, orienta- tion, 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.

ISBN/ISSN

2041-1723

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

This open-access article is provided for download in compliance with the publisher’s policy on self-archiving. To view the version of record, use the DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20683-2

Publisher

Nature Portfolio

Volume

12

Issue

1

Peer Reviewed

yes

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