Nano-Optomechanics with Applications to Protein Dynamics and Terahertz Technology

拟议的研究计划有两个主要推动力，由我们在纳米级轻物质相互作用方面的专业知识和领先地位统一起来，特别是使用纳米等离子(纳米结构金属)。 1)生物：蛋白质是生命的机器。我们想了解他们的动态生物物理学，以及这如何在他们的功能中发挥作用，突变如何导致功能障碍，最后，小分子如何纠正功能障碍来治愈疾病。为了做到这一点，我们正在开发能够一次只观察一种蛋白质的新技术。我们已经向一家制药公司授权了一项早期的“单一蛋白质的光学捕获”技术，在这里，我们的目标是创造更强大的技术，可以探测蛋白质的振动能量图景，并回答关于它们的行为和相互作用的基本问题。 2)信息：在我们对数据的渴求不断增长的同时(例如，全球超过60亿部手机)，数据处理行业面临着以低能耗实现高速度的难以管理的挑战。需要截然不同的方法；例如，考虑到那些自然运行速度比传统计算机时钟频率快1000倍的方法。全光技术当然可以达到这样的太赫兹数据速率，但有效的交换需要比自然材料提供的更强的非线性。在这里，我们研究了全新的和原创的设计师材料类别，以实现强烈的非线性响应。这些材料旨在利用以前从未在此背景下研究过的极其非线性的亚纳米级过程：库仑阻塞(单电子阻塞)和量子隧道效应(指数敏感)。我们将通过纳米粒子的封锁和电致伸缩实现调制，并利用等离子体将光压缩到亚纳米间隙，从而实现信息处理设备的密集集成。 该计划旨在“生物”和“信息”领域的开创性发现。该计划建立在我们过去在纳米等离子方面的成功基础上(对科学界做出了重大贡献，并向工业转移了技术)，但主要由高度雄心勃勃的蛋白质分析和全光开关的新方法组成，如果成功，这些方法可能会改变科学和工业。

The proposed research program has two main thrusts unified by our expertise and leadership in light-matter interaction at the nanometer scale, particularly using nanoplasmonics (nanostructured metals). 1) Bio: Proteins are the machines of life. We want to understand their dynamical biophysics and how this plays a role in their function, how mutation leads to malfunction, and finally, how small molecules can correct malfunctions to cure diseases. To do this, we are developing new techniques capable of looking at proteins one-at-a-time. We have already licensed an earlier technology on "optical trapping of a single protein" to a pharmaceutical company, and here we aim to create more powerful techniques that can probe the vibrational energy landscape of proteins and answer fundamental questions about their behavior and interactions. 2) Info: While our thirst for data is growing (e.g., more than 6 billion cell phones in the world), data processing industries are facing "unmanageable" challenges to achieve high speed with low energy consumption. Radically different approaches are required; for example, considering those that naturally operate a thousand times faster than conventional computer clock rates. All-optical approaches can certainly achieve such terahertz data rates, but efficient switching requires much stronger nonlinearities than natural materials provide. Here, we investigate entirely new and original classes of designer materials to achieve a strong nonlinear response. These materials are designed to harness extremely nonlinear sub-nanometer scale processes that have not been investigated in this context before: Coulomb blockade (single electron blocking) and quantum tunneling (exponentially sensitive). We will achieve modulation through Blockade and electrostriction of nanoscale particles, and we will squeeze light down to sub-nanometer gaps by using plasmonics, allowing for dense integration of information processing devices. This program aims at ground-breaking discovery in the "bio" and "info" sectors. The program builds on our past successes in nanoplasmonics (with high impact contributions to the scientific community and technology transfer to industry), but is mainly made up of highly-ambitious new approaches to protein analysis and all-optical switching that could, if successful, transform both science and industry.