Abstract Thermally induced particle hopping in the nanoscale double-well potential is fundamental in material design and device operation. After the proposal of the basic hopping theory, several experimental studies, including some using the optical trapping method, have validated the theoretical approach over various friction ranges of the surrounding medium. However, only external parameters, such as viscosity, temperature, and pressures, have been varied in practical circumstances, and other tools capable of adjusting the potential profile itself to modulate the hopping rate are needed. By using metallic nanoantenna with various gap sizes and different optical pump power, we engineered a double-well potential landscape and directly observed the hopping of a single nanoparticle with a diameter of 4 nm. The distance between the two potential wells was 0.6–5 nm, and the maximum well depth and maximum height of the central potential barrier were approximately 69 and 4 k B T, respectively. The hopping rate was governed by the Arrhenius law and showed a vertex when the barrier height was approximately 2 k B T, which was in good agreement with the computational expectations.

中文翻译：

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捕获在等离子体双阱势中的单个纳米粒子的跳跃

摘要 纳米级双阱势中的热诱导粒子跳跃是材料设计和器件操作的基础。在基本跳跃理论提出之后，包括一些使用光捕获方法在内的一些实验研究已经在周围介质的各种摩擦范围内验证了理论方法。然而，只有外部参数，如粘度、温度和压力，在实际环境中发生了变化，并且需要其他能够调整电位分布本身以调节跳跃率的工具。通过使用具有各种间隙尺寸和不同光泵功率的金属纳米天线，我们设计了双阱势图，并直接观察到直径为 4 nm 的单个纳米粒子的跳跃。两个势阱之间的距离为 0.6-5 nm，中心势垒的最大阱深和最大高度分别约为 69 和 4 k BT。跳跃率受阿伦尼乌斯定律控制，当势垒高度约为 2 k BT 时显示一个顶点，这与计算预期非常吻合。