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Abstract:
Temperature measurements in our daily life are typically performed by bringing a thermometer in contact with the object to be measured. However, measuring the temperature of nanoscale objects is a much more tricky task due to their size - up to a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair.

New method for measuring the temperature of nanoscale objects discovered

Exeter, UK | Posted on May 5th, 2014

Pioneering research, published in Nature Nanotechnology, has now developed a method to accurately measure the surface temperature of nanoscale objects when they have a different temperature than their environment. A team led by Dr Janet Anders at the University of Exeter and Professor Peter Barker at University College London have discovered that the surface temperatures of nanoscale objects can be determined from analysing their jittery movement in air - known as Brownian motion.

"This motion is caused by the collisions with the air molecules" said Dr Anders, a quantum information theorist and member of the Physics and Astronomy department at the University of Exeter. "We found that the impact of such collisions carries information about the object's surface temperature, and have used our observation of its Brownian motion to identify this information and infer the temperature."

The scientists conducted their research by trapping a glass nanosphere in a laser beam and suspending it in air. The sphere was then heated and it was possible to observe rising temperatures on the nanoscale until the glass got so hot that it melted. This technique could even discern different temperatures across the surface of the tiny sphere.

"When working with objects on the nanoscale, collisions with air molecules make a big difference", says Dr. James Millen from the team at University College London. "By measuring how energy is transferred between nanoparticles and the air around them we learn a lot about both".

Accurate knowledge of temperature is needed in many nanotechnological devices because their operation strongly depends on temperature. The discovery also informs current research which is working towards bringing large objects into a quantum superposition state. It further impacts on the study of aerosols in the atmosphere and opens the door for the study of processes that are out of equilibrium in a controlled setting.

Brownian motion is named after the Scottish botanist Robert Brown who, in 1827, noted that pollen move through water even when the water is perfectly still. Albert Einstein published a paper in 1905 that explained in precise detail how this movement was a result of the pollen being pushed by individual water molecules, eventually leading to the acceptance of the atomistic nature of all matter in science.

This research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC).

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About University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a Russell Group university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 18,000 students and is ranked 8th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide league table, 10th in The Complete University Guide and 12th in the Guardian University Guide 2014. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the University's research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20. Exeter was The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13.

The University has invested strategically to deliver more than Ł350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses in the last few years; including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange on the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, together with world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute. There are plans for another Ł330 million of investment between now and 2016.

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Contacts:
Duncan Sandes
University of Exeter Press Office
+44 (0)1392 722405 or 722062

Twitter: @UoE_ScienceNews

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