Active Nanodiamond Swimmers Fabricated by Glancing Angle Deposition (GLAD)

Abstract

Nanodiamonds embedding nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers have been emerging as nanoscale quantum probes for bio-sensing and imaging due to the stable fluorescence and biocompatibility. To fully exploit the capability of the NV electron spins for diverse applications potentially in bioscience, individual manipulation of their positions and orientations in fluids are essentially needed. However, current methods such as scanning probe techniques [1], optical tweezers [2], and Anti-Brownian Electrokinetic trap [3] are still limited to “passive approaches”. Here, we developed a novel strategy to fabricate active nanodiamond (ND) swimmers, composed of a ND crystal and a light-driven self-thermophoretic motor. Three-dimensional shaping of the swimmers, enabling to manipulate their locomotion by geometry-dependent hydrodynamic interactions in fluids, is successfully achieved by glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method [4]. Here, we present our results and discuss the prospects of our work for potential applications in various vector metrologies in highly viscous fluids, potentially for biological systems. [1] Degen, C. L. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 243111 (2008). [2] Geiselmann, M. et al. Nat. Nano. 8, 175 (2013). [3] Kayci, M. et al. Nano Lett. 14, 5335 (2014). [4] Mark, A. G. et al. Nat. Mater. 12, 802 (2013).