Before the DYNAMO project began, researchers could already make simple solid-state nanopores by drilling holes in thin silicon nitride membranes using a focused ion beam or electron beam lithography. Typical pore diameters were around 10–30 nm, and the membranes were about 20–100 nm thick. However, making many identical nanopores in an array was still difficult because each pore had a slightly different size and shape. This lack of reproducibility was a major bottleneck.

Some efforts had been made to use plasmonic structures for surface‑enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in nanopores. By placing metal films or nanoparticles around the pore, researchers could obtain stronger Raman signals from molecules passing through. However, the acquisition frequency of Raman spectra was typically very low – often on the order of seconds or even longer per spectrum. This made it impossible to capture fast, transient events such as a single molecule translocating through the pore in microseconds. In addition, almost all of these works used the plasmonic structure passively, only to boost the signal. There was very little exploration of using the plasmonic structure for active control, for example by shining a laser to generate local heating (plasmonic heating) and deliberately switching the pore’s behavior. The idea of using light not just to see but also to manipulate what happens inside the nanopore remained largely unexplored.

Mixing different functional materials with nanopores was still at an early stage. Magnetic materials (such as cobalt or nickel) and plasmonic metals had been combined in theory, but very few experimental devices existed. People had started to use two-dimensional materials like graphene or MoS₂ as the membrane itself, but applications of hybrid channels where a 2D material sits on top of a silicon nitride trench were not widely explored. DNA origami – folded DNA that can position metal nanoparticles with nanometer precision – had been demonstrated in solution, but attaching it reliably to a solid-state nanopore and keeping it stable during electrical measurements remained a challenge.

When it came to controlling the movement of ions or molecules through a nanopore, most approaches were passive. They relied on fixed properties such as the pore size, the surface charge, or the salt concentration and pH of the buffer solution. These methods worked for steady‑state measurements, but they could not actively switch the pore on and off on demand. The use of external stimuli to achieve active control – such as fast optical heating, real‑time voltage‑driven chemical reactions, or gate‑voltage tuning of surface charge – had not yet been widely explored. In general, the field lacked fast, reversible, and localized active gating mechanisms.

As a Doctoral Researcher in the DYNAMO network, Shukun Weng extended his expertise from nanostructure textured perovskite devices to hybrid plasmonic nanopores and nanofluidic devices. He contributed to the design and fabrication of several gating platforms that control ion transport. In one work, he integrated a thermoresponsive polymer (PNIPAM) with a gold bullseye plasmonic structure. Laser illumination creates a local temperature control, triggering reversible polymer swelling/collapse that opens or closes the nanopore within milliseconds. This optothermal gate achieves an on/off ratio of 60 and enables selective addressing of individual pores in an array, demonstrating logic operations.

In another line, he helped develop voltage-controlled in-pore chemistry: electromigration of Ca²⁺ or Mn²⁺ from the cis side into a nanopore containing phosphate buffer induces reversible precipitation/dissolution of metal phosphates. This creates a nanofluidic diode with a rectification ratio exceeding 40,000 and a memristor operating at sub-nanowatt power. Using a plasmonic bullseye nanopore, he performed surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to directly monitor the precipitate formation inside the attoliter-scale pore – the first real-time chemical fingerprinting of such dynamic reactions.

He also developed a MoS₂/SiN hybrid nanochannel (≈10 nm height, 100 nm width) where a gate voltage tunes the surface charge of MoS₂, enabling ambipolar ion transport. This device harvests osmotic power from a salt gradient, achieving a power density of 18 kW/m² from a single channel, and detects unfolded BSA proteins with significantly extended dwell times due to MoS₂-protein interactions. Collectively, these contributions establish a family of electrically, optically, and chemically gated nanopores that are scalable, energy-efficient, and suitable for future iontronic circuits.