Brownian fluctuations and heating of an optically aligned gold nanorod

We present the first quantitative measurements of the torque exerted on a single gold nanorod in a polarized three-dimensional optical trap. We determined the torque both by observing the time-averaged orientation distribution and by measuring the dynamics of the rotational brownian fluctuations. The measurements are in good agreement with calculations, where the temperature profile around the hot nanorod gives rise to a reduced, effective viscosity. The maximum torque on a 60  nm×25  nm nanorod was 100  pN·nm, large enough to address single-molecule processes in soft and biological matter.