Optical Tracking of Three-Dimensional Brownian Motion of Nanoparticles

Novel optical techniques are presented for three-dimensional tracking of nanoparticles; Optical Serial Sectioning Microscopy (OSSM) and Ratiometric Total Internal Reflection Fluorescent Microscopy (R-TIRFM). OSSM measures optically diffracted particle images, the so-called Point Spread Function (PSF), and determines the defocusing or line-of-sight location of the imaged particle measured from the focal plane. The line-of-sight Brownian motion detection using the OSSM technique is proposed in lieu of the more cumbersome two-dimensional Brownian motion tracking on the imaging plane as a potentially more effective tool to nonintrusively map the temperature fields for nanoparticle suspension fluids. On the other hand, R-TIRFM is presented to experimentally examine the classic theory on the near-wall hindered Brownian diffusive motion. An evanescent wave field from the total internal reflection of a 488nm bandwidth of an argon-ion laser is used to provide a thin illumination field of an order of a few hundred nanometers from the wall. The experimental results show good agreement with the lateral hindrance theory, but show discrepancies from the normal hindrance theory. It is conjectured that the discrepancies can be attributed to the additional hindering effects, including electrostatic and electro-osmotic interactions between the negatively charged tracer particles and the glass surface.