Measurement of single nanoparticle anisotropy by laser induced optical alignment and Rayleigh scattering for determining particle morphology

We demonstrate the measurement of nanoparticle anisotropy by angularly resolved Rayleigh scattering single optical levitated particles that are oriented in space via trapping light vacuum. This technique is applied to a range particle geometries from perfect spherical nanodroplets octahedral nanocrystals. show this method can resolve shape differences down few nanometers and be both low-damping environments, as demonstrated here, traditional overdamped fluids used tweezers.