New 'All-Optical' Nanoscale Sensors of Force Access Previously Unreachable Environments

ZipNada shares a report from Phys.org: In a paper published today in Nature, a team led by Columbia Engineering researchers and collaborators report that they have invented new nanoscale sensors of force. They are luminescent nanocrystals that can change intensity and/or color when you push or pull on them. These 'all-optical' nanosensors are probed with light only and therefore allow for fully remote read-outs -- no wires or connections are needed. They have 100 times better force sensitivity than the existing nanoparticles that utilize rare-earth ions for their optical response, and an operational range that spans more than four orders of magnitude in force, a much larger range -- 10-100 times larger -- than any previous optical nanosensor. 'We expect our discovery will revolutionize the sensitivities and dynamic range achievable with optical force sensors, and will immediately disrupt technologies in areas from robotics to cellular biophysics and medicine to space travel,' said Jim Schuck, associate professor of mechanical engineering.

'The importance of developing new force sensors was recently underscored by Ardem Patapoutian, the 2021 Nobel Laureate who emphasized the difficulty in probing environmentally sensitive processes within multiscale systems -- that is to say, in most physical and biological processes,' Schuck notes. 'We are excited to be part of these discoveries that transform the paradigm of sensing, allowing one to sensitively and dynamically map critical changes in forces and pressures in real-world environments that are currently unreachable with today's technologies.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.