Quantum Rod Formation Can Generate 3D Images and Enhance Virtual Reality Devices, Study Suggests

Most commercially available flat-screen televisions incorporate quantum dots, but making quantum rod formation for commercial devices is more complicated. If such arrays are created, they have the potential to control the polarization and color of light and generate 3D images for virtual reality devices.

Precisely Assembling Quantum Rods

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a new approach to arranging the arrays of quantum rods precisely. They made this possible by depositing the quantum rods in scaffolds composed of folded DNA.

The new method allowed the researchers to regulate their orientation which is a key element in determining the light polarization emitted by the array. This makes adding depth and dimensionality to a virtual scene easier.

According to senior author Mark Bathe, one of the challenges with quantum rods is aligning them at the nanoscale so that they all point in the same direction. When they all point in the same direction on a 2D surface, all the quantum rods have the same properties in interacting with light and controlling its polarization.

Over the past 15 years, Bathe collaborated with other researchers to study the design of nanoscale structures made from DNA origami. They also developed scalable fabrication techniques incorporating quantum dots into DNA-based materials. However, conventional approaches in creating aligned arrays of quantum rods with a fabric or electric field had limited success.

To achieve light emission with high efficiency, the rods must be kept at least 10 nanometers away from each other to avoid suppressing the light-emitting activity of their neighbor. To achieve this condition, the research team attached quantum rods to diamond-shaped DNA origami structures, which were then attached to a surface where they fit together like puzzle pieces.

The process also includes emulsifying DNA into a mixture with quantum rods. As the mix is rapidly dehydrated, the DNA molecules form a dense layer on the surface of the rods. The process takes only a few minutes and is faster than any other conventional method for attaching DNA to nanoscale particles. This discovery may hold the key to enabling commercial applications.

Potentials of Scaffolded DNA Origami

In biomolecular engineering, DNA has become one of the most widely used building blocks in designing self-assembling materials in a technique known as DNA origami. This technique involves DNA folding to make two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects at a nanoscale. In DNA origami, hundreds of short DNA oligonucleotides known as staple strands are used in folding a long single-stranded DNA called scaffold strand into different nanoscale structures.

DNA origami has dramatically improved the complexity and scalability of DNA nanostructures. The technique offers a versatile platform in engineering nanoscale structures due to its high degree of customization and spatial addressability. These features hold the key in a broad range of applications in biology, chemistry, material science, physics, and computer science which usually require programmed control of particles in a three-dimensional space.