The ability to determine not only whether a micron-scale particle twists but also how much has the potential to create new opportunities for machine vision and beyond. A research team led by the University of Michigan has demonstrated that micron-sized 'bow ties' self-assembled from nanoparticles
The graphic shows light waves approaching the twisted metal bowties and being turned by the bowtie shape. The ability to control the degree of twist in a curling, nanostructured material could be a useful new tool in chemistry and machine vision. Credit: Ella Maru Studio.
Such materials could enable robots to accurately navigate complex human environments. Twisted structures would encode information in the shapes of the light waves that reflect from the surface, rather than in the 2D arrangement of symbols that comprises most human-read signs. This would take advantage of an aspect of light that humans can barely sense, known as polarization.
Robots could read signs that look like white dots to human eyes; the information would be encoded in the combination of frequencies reflected, the tightness of the twist, and whether the twist was left- or right-handed. Twisted nanostructures may also help create the right conditions to produce chiral medicines, which are challenging to manufacture with the correct molecular twist.
But with different ratios of left-and right-handed cystine, the team made intermediate twists, including the flat pancake at a 50-50 ratio. The pitch of the tightest bow ties, basically the length of a 360-degree turn, is about 4 microns long—within infrared light’s range of wavelengths.
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