Scholars@Duke
Domna Kotsifaki

Domna Kotsifaki

Assistant Professor of Physics at Duke Kunshan University
DKU Faculty

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Plasmonic Optical Tweezers and Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: Fundamentals, Single-Entity Applications, and the Evolving Role of Artificial Intelligence.

Journal article Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · July 2026 The ability to manipulate and probe individual nano-particles, viruses, and organelles with high sensitivity and specificity is an essential part of modern nanoscience and molecular biology. Plasmonic optical tweezers (POT), which use localized surface pla ... Full text Cite

Tracking the rotational dynamics of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii across culture days using optical tweezers.

Journal article European biophysics journal : EBJ · May 2026 The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (CR) has been explored as the live component of biohybrid microrobots due to its intrinsic motility. However, cell performance depends on physiological state, which evolves with culture age. Using optical tweezers, ... Full text Cite

From Spectroscopy to Nanophotonics: Cutting-Edge Optical Methods in Plant Disease Detection

Journal article Plant Pathology · January 1, 2026 Agriculture is essential for sustaining life, providing nutrition and contributing trillions of dollars to the global economy. However, increasing global populations and limited natural resources are placing unprecedented pressure on food production system ... Full text Cite

SERS Detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 Spike Proteins and IgG Antibodies Using Metallic H ‐type Nano‐Apertures

Journal article Advanced Physics Research · December 2025 ABSTRACT The rapid and accurate detection of viral biomarkers is critical for controlling infectious disease outbreaks, as highlighted by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Here, we present a labe ... Full text Open Access Cite

Plasmonic Janus particles: A perspective on optical manipulation and biomedical applications

Journal article Journal of Applied Physics · June 7, 2025 The compositional asymmetry of Janus micro- and nanoparticles gives unprecedented opportunities to manipulate such particles with different stimuli to achieve enhanced optical, magnetic, and photothermal responses, which can be exploited for sensing, photo ... Full text Cite

Detection of small microplastics in the surface freshwater samples of Yangcheng Lake, China

Journal article Heliyon · October 23, 2024 Microplastics up to 20 μm are recognized as having the highest potential to cause significant impacts on aquatic environments. Current methods face challenges in detecting and chemically characterizing small microplastics in freshwater systems. In this stu ... Full text Open Access Cite

Fast lipid vesicles and dielectric particles migration using thermal-gradient-induced forces

Journal article Journal of Optics United Kingdom · September 1, 2024 Lipid vesicles are small biological particles that can be used for both targeted drug delivery systems and clinical studies. Their optical manipulation, however, is limited by the small difference in refractive indices with the surrounding medium, as well ... Full text Cite

Biomedical Optics Express Feature Issue Introduction: Optical Manipulation and Its Applications (OMA) 2023.

Journal article Biomedical optics express · February 2024 The feature issue of Biomedical Optics Express presents studies that were the focus of the Optical Manipulation and its Applications (OMA) meeting that was held on 24 - 27 April 2022 in Vancouver, Canada. ... Full text Cite

Detection of nontoxic BoNT/A levels in post-facial Botox injection breastmilk.

Journal article Frontiers in drug safety and regulation · January 2024 The use of cosmetic Botox (BoNT/A) has become increasingly prevalent among women, even during the post-pregnancy breastfeeding period. However, there is currently a limited understanding of the extent Botox enters breastmilk and its potential effect on the ... Full text Cite

Asymmetric split-ring plasmonic nanostructures for the optical sensing of Escherichia coli.

Journal article Biomedical optics express · September 2023 Strategies for in-liquid micro-organism detection are crucial for the clinical and pharmaceutical industries. While Raman spectroscopy is a promising label-free technique for micro-organism detection, it remains challenging due to the weak bacterial Raman ... Full text Cite

Enabling Self-Induced Back-Action Trapping of Gold Nanoparticles in Metamaterial Plasmonic Tweezers.

Journal article Nano letters · June 2023 Featured Publication The pursuit for efficient nanoparticle trapping with low powers has led to optical tweezers technology moving from the conventional free-space configuration to advanced plasmonic systems. However, trapping nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm still remains a c ... Full text Open Access Cite

Plasmonic and metamaterial biosensors: a game-changer for virus detection

Journal article Sensors and Diagnostics · May 1, 2023 One of the most important processes in the fight against current and future pandemics is the rapid diagnosis and initiation of treatment of viruses in humans. Currently available viral diagnostic methods detect only known pathogens, which comprise a small ... Full text Cite

The role of temperature-induced effects generated by plasmonic nanostructures on particle delivery and manipulation: a review.

Journal article Nanophotonics (Berlin, Germany) · May 2022 Plasmonic optical tweezers that stem from the need to trap and manipulate ever smaller particles using non-invasive optical forces, have made significant contributions to precise particle motion control at the nanoscale. In addition to the optical forces, ... Full text Cite

Analysis of small microplastics in coastal surface water samples of the subtropical island of Okinawa, Japan.

Journal article The Science of the total environment · March 2021 Marine plastic debris is widely recognized as a global environmental issue. Small microplastic particles, with an upper size limit of 20 μm, have been identified as having the highest potential for causing damage to marine ecosystems. Having accurate metho ... Full text Cite

Dynamic multiple nanoparticle trapping using metamaterial plasmonic tweezers

Journal article Applied Physics Letters · January 11, 2021 Optical manipulation has attracted remarkable interest owing to its versatile and noninvasive nature. However, conventional optical trapping remains inefficient in the nanoscopic world. The emergence of plasmonics in recent years has brought a revolutionar ... Full text Cite

Fast and efficient nanoparticle trapping using plasmonic connected nanoring apertures.

Journal article Nanotechnology · January 2021 The manipulation of microparticles using optical forces has led to many applications in the life and physical sciences. To extend optical trapping towards the nano-regime, in this work we demonstrate trapping of single nanoparticles in arrays of plasmonic ... Full text Cite

Fano-Resonant, Asymmetric, Metamaterial-Assisted Tweezers for Single Nanoparticle Trapping.

Journal article Nano letters · May 2020 Plasmonic nanostructures overcome Abbe's diffraction limit to create strong gradient electric fields, enabling efficient optical trapping of nanoparticles. However, it remains challenging to achieve stable trapping with low incident laser intensity. Here, ... Full text Cite

Nanometric plasmonic optical trapping on gold nanostructures

Journal article EPJ Applied Physics · June 1, 2019 The precise noninvasive optical manipulation of nanometer-sized particles by evanescent fields, instead of the conventional optical tweezers, has recently awaken an increasing interest, opening a way for investigating phenomena relevant to both fundamental ... Full text Cite

Plasmonic optical tweezers based on nanostructures: Fundamentals, advances and prospects

Journal article Nanophotonics · January 1, 2019 The ability of metallic nanostructures to confine light at the sub-wavelength scale enables new perspectives and opportunities in the field of nanotechnology. Making use of this unique advantage, nano-optical trapping techniques have been developed to tack ... Full text Cite

Geometrical effect characterization of femtosecond-laser manufactured glass microfluidic chips based on optical manipulation of submicroparticles

Journal article Optical Engineering · December 1, 2017 Microfluidic devices provide a platform with wide ranging applications from environmental monitoring to disease diagnosis. They offer substantive advantages but are often not optimized or designed to be used by nonexpert researchers. Microchannels of a mic ... Full text Cite

Plasmon enhanced optical tweezers with gold-coated black silicon.

Journal article Scientific reports · May 2016 Plasmonic optical tweezers are a ubiquitous tool for the precise manipulation of nanoparticles and biomolecules at low photon flux, while femtosecond-laser optical tweezers can probe the nonlinear optical properties of the trapped species with applications ... Full text Cite

Near-field enhanced optical tweezers utilizing femtosecond-laser nanostructured substrates

Journal article Applied Physics Letters · November 23, 2015 We present experimental evidence of plasmonic-enhanced optical tweezers, of polystyrene beads in deionized water in the vicinity of metal-coated nanostructures. The optical tweezers operate with a continuous wave near-infrared laser. We employ a Cu/Au bila ... Full text Cite

Efficient and low cost multiple optical trap, based on interference

Journal article Optik · April 1, 2013 Interference fringes provide the means for simultaneous, multiple-micromanipulation, of particles. In biomedical investigations, multiple interference optical trapping gives the feasibility to trap a large number of biological substances. In this paper we ... Full text Cite

Optical tweezers with enhanced efficiency based on laser-structured substrates

Journal article Applied Physics Letters · July 2, 2012 We present an optical nanotrapping setup that exhibits enhanced efficiency, based on localized plasmonic fields around sharp metallic features. The substrates consist of laser-structured silicon wafers with quasi-ordered microspikes on the surface, coated ... Full text Cite

Mid-infrared radiation transmission through fluoride glass multimode optical fibers

Journal article Optics and Laser Technology · November 1, 2011 Measurement of the transmission laser radiation from Q-switched and free-running Er:YAG lasers operating at 2.94 μm through fluoride glass multimode optical fibers of 448, 465 and 620 μm core diameter were performed. Attenuation measurements were obtained ... Full text Cite

Pulsed infrared radiation transmission through hollow silica waveguides

Journal article Optics and Laser Technology · June 1, 2009 Transmission measurements of Q-switched and free-running Er:YAG laser radiation, at 2.94 μm and free-running Ho:YAG laser radiation, at 2.06 μm, through hollow silica waveguides of 750 and 1000 μm core diameter were performed. Attenuation measurements were ... Full text Cite