Patent ID: 8207323

Claim:
A nanoscale motion detector, comprising: a molecular structure having a rotating portion; a nanoparticle coupled to the rotating portion of the molecular structure, wherein the nanoparticle is a gold nanorod; a detection DNA stand coupled between the nanoparticle and the molecular structure, wherein the detection DNA strand hybridizes with a target DNA strand, if the target DNA strand matches the detection DNA strand, to form a structural link between the molecular structure and the nanoparticle causing the rotation portion to rotate; a light source incident to a first surface of the nanoparticle to scatter a first wavelength of the light when the nanoparticle is in a first position and further incident to a second surface of the nanoparticle to scatter a second wavelength of the light when the nanoparticle is in a second position; and a polarizing filter filters the first and second wavelengths of the light, wherein rotation motion is detected by observing first and second wavelengths of the filtered light.