Related papers: Forces on a nanoparticle in an optical trap
While colloidal chemistry provides ways to obtain a great variety of nanoparticles, with different shapes, sizes, material composition, and surface functions, their controlled deposition and combination on arbitrary positions of substrates…
The viscous drag on a colloidal particle pulled through solution by an optical trap is large enough that on experimentally relavant time scales the mechanical force exerted by the trap is equal and op- posite the viscous drag force. The…
Tailored time-dependent variations of the transverse profile together with longitudinal phase shifts of laser beams are studied. It is shown theoretically that a standing wave setup and real-time beam forming techniques (e.g. by…
We present a theoretical analysis of a novel scheme for optical cooling of particles that does not in principle require a closed optical transition. A tightly confined laser beam interacting with a trapped particle experiences a phase…
The center-of-mass motion of optically trapped dielectric nanoparticles in vacuum is extremely well-decoupled from its environment, making a powerful tool for measurements of feeble sub-attonewton forces. We demonstrate a method to trap and…
Trapping nanoscopic objects to observe their dynamic behaviour for extended periods of time is an ongoing quest. Particularly, sub-100nm transparent objects are hard to catch and most techniques rely on immobilisation or transient diffusion…
Optical trapping describes the interaction between light and matter to manipulate micro-objects through momentum transfer. In the case of 3D trapping with a single beam, this is termed optical tweezers. Optical tweezers are a powerful and…
When introducing a nanoparticle into an optical trap, its mass and shape are not immediately apparent. We combine a charge-based mass measurement with a shape determination method based on light scattering and an analysis of the damping…
Optical tweezers have become a powerful tool for measuring parameters of microscale and nanoscale local environments. Motion of particles within optical tweezer traps established itself as a probe for local viscosity, temperature as well as…
As a first approximation, the forces acting on optically trapped particles are commonly assumed to be conservative. The influence of the nonconservative force has been shown to be negligible in overdamped liquid environments. However, its…
The development of laser cooling coupled with the ability to trap atoms and ions in electromagnetic fields, has revolutionised atomic and optical physics, leading to the development of atomic clocks, high-resolution spectroscopy and…
Optical trapping is an indispensable tool in physics and the life sciences. However, there is a clear trade off between the size of a particle to be trapped, its spatial confinement, and the intensities required. This is due to the decrease…
Optical and acoustical trapping has been established as a tool for holding and moving microscopic particles suspended in a liquid in a contact-free and non-invasive manner. Opposed to standard microscopic imaging where the probe is fixated,…
We theoretically investigate trapping conditions for ultracold polar molecules in optical lattices, when external magnetic and electric fields are simultaneously applied. Our results are based on an accurate electronic-structure calculation…
The aim of this work is to find ways to trap an atom in a cavity. In contrast to other approaches we propose a method where the cavity is basically in the vacuum state and the atom in the ground state. The idea is to induce a spatial…
Photonic crystal cavities with bowtie defects that combine ultra-high Q and ultra-low mode volume are theoretically studied for low-power nanoscale optical trapping. By harnessing the localized heating of the water layer near the bowtie…
We investigate the dynamics of high aspect ratio nanowires trapped axially in a single gradient force optical tweezers. A power spectrum analysis of the Brownian dynamics reveals a broad spectral resonance of the order of a kHz with peak…
Radiofrequency (RF) traps enable highly controlled interactions between charged particles, including reactions between cold molecular ions, sympathetic cooling of one ion species with another, and quantum logic spectroscopy. However, the…
Non-invasive optical manipulation of particles has emerged as a powerful and versatile tool for biological study and nanotechnology. In particular, trapping and rotation of cells, cell nuclei and sub-micron particles enables unique…
A particle driven by active self-propulsion can be subject to inhomogeneous potential fields, steering its orientation and leading to confinement and eventual trapping. Analytical treatment of capture and/or release dynamics for general…