Atomically-thin nature of graphene nanopores make it possible to sequence single DNA molecules with base-pair resolution. However, conventional approaches to fabricate nanopores on graphene require expensive and sophisticated process such as electron beam sculpting/drilling. Here, we report a simple single-step fabrication for creating graphene nanopores with integrated plasmonic nanoantenna by photothermal effect of gold nanorods. Tunability of nanopore dimensions and optical properties of plasmonic nanoantennas has been demonstrated by controlling laser fluence. The optical function of our integrated plasmonic nanoantenna is manifested by multifold fluorescent signal enhancement during single lambda phage DNA translocation through a graphene nanopore. Our approach could offer a new avenue for nanopore-based simultaneous electrical and optical DNA sequencing.
Project end date: 02/06/13