Nano Optics

Focus

The newly established Nano Optics group focuses on advancing the knowledge of light-matter interactions below the diffraction limit of light as well as development of novel experimental methods that address current topics in biology, biophysics, and biochemistry. Although we employ a wide range of procedures, our investigative toolbox is mainly comprised of single-particle and single-molecule optical techniques. In particular, approaches such as light microscopy, laser spectroscopy, quantum optics, near-field optics, and plasmonics are combined with chemical and bioanalytical methods and biotechnologies to achieve a robust array of exciting projects.

Research projects

• ERC-CZ Optical imaging of single protein dynamics
• High-fidelity fast tracking of protein motion mechanisms

Complete overview of projects

Publications

1. I. Kopal, M. Švecová, V. Jeřábek, D. Palounek, T. Čapková, A. Michalcová, L. Lapčák, P. Matějka,  M. Dendisová,  Laser-Induced Reactions of 4-Aminobenzenthiol Species Adsorbed on Ag, Au, and Cu Plasmonic Structures Followed by SERS Spectroscopy. The Role of Substrate and Excitation Energy – Surface-Complex Photochemistry and Plasmonic Catalysis. ACS Omega 2024, 9 (5), 6005-6017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c00121

2. S. Lin, Y. He, D. Feng, M. Piliarik, X-W Chen, Optical Fingerprint of Flat Substrate Surface and Marker-Free Lateral Displacement Detection with Angstrom-Level Precision, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129 (2022), 213201, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.213201
3. Robert, H. M. L., Čičala, M., Piliarik, M., Shaping of Optical Wavefronts Using Light-Patterned Photothermal Metamaterial. Adv. Optical Mater. 2022, 2200960. https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202200960
4. Jiří Červenka, Martin Šilhavík, Prabhat Kumar, Zahid Ali Zafar, Martin Míšek, Martin Čičala, Marek Piliarik, Anomalous elasticity and damping in covalently cross-linked graphene aerogels, Commun Phys 5, 27 (2022); doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-022-00806-5.
5. M. Vala, M. Piliarik, Weighing single protein complexes on the go, Nature Methods 18 (2021) 1159–1160 (News & Views); doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-021-01263-8.

Complete overview of publications