Related papers: Cell selective manipulation with single beam acous…
Adherent cells exert traction forces on to their environment, which allows them to migrate, to maintain tissue integrity, and to form complex multicellular structures. This traction can be measured in a perturbation-free manner with…
We recently demonstrated that strings of trapped atoms inside a standing wave optical dipole trap can be rearranged using optical tweezers [Y. Miroshnychenko et al., Nature, in press (2006)]. This technique allows us to actively set the…
Normal thermal fluctuations of the cell membrane have been studied extensively using high resolution microscopy and focused light, particularly at the peripheral regions of a cell. We use a single probe particle attached non-specifically to…
This paper presents a routine to align an optical tweezer on a single trapped ion and use the ion as a probe to characterize the tweezer. We find a smallest tweezer waist of $2.3(2)\,\mu$m, which is in agreement with the theoretical minimal…
We put forward an enantioselective method for chiral nanoparticles using optical tweezers. We demonstrate that the optical trapping force in a typical, realistic optical tweezing setup with circularly-polarized trapping beams is sensitive…
Since the pioneering work of Arthur Ashkin, optical tweezers have become an indispensable tool for contactless manipulation of micro- and nanoparticles. Nowadays optical tweezers are employed in a myriad of applications demonstrating the…
Optical tweezers are tools made of light that enable contactless pushing, trapping, and manipulation of objects ranging from atoms to space light sails. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, optical tweezers have evolved…
3D pitch rotation of microparticles and cells assumes importance in a wide variety of applications in biology, physics, chemistry and medicine. Applications such as cell imaging and injection benefit from pitch-rotational manipulation.…
Particles that can be trapped in optical tweezers range from tens of microns down to tens of nanometres in size. Interestingly, this size range includes large macromolecules. We show experimentally, in agreement with theoretical…
Contactless manipulation of small objects is essential for biomedical and chemical applications, such as cell analysis, assisted fertilisation, and precision chemistry. Established methods, including optical, acoustic, and magnetic…
We demonstrate that a set of microfabricated electrodes can be coupled to a commercial optical tweezers device, implementing a hybrid electro-optical trap with multiple functionalities to manipulate micro/nanoparticles in suspension. Our…
Optical tweezers are powerful tools based on focused laser beams. They are able to trap, manipulate and investigate a wide range of microscopic and nanoscopic particles in different media, such as liquids, air, and vacuum. Key applications…
Current optical manipulation techniques rely on carefully engineered setups and samples. Although similar conditions are routinely met in research laboratories, it is still a challenge to manipulate microparticles when the environment is…
Single-beam acoustical tweezers are used to manipulate individual microbubbles and provide quantitative measurements of the local shear modulus of soft hydrogels. The microbubbles are directly generated by electrolysis of the hydrogel and…
Waves impart momentum and exert force on obstacles in their path. The transfer of wave momentum is a fundamental mechanism for contactless manipulation, yet the rules of conventional scattering intrinsically limit the radiation force based…
A variety of complex mechanisms, from chemical reaction pathways to active fluctuations, orchestrate molecular transport in intracellular environments. Despite significant recent progress in visualizing and probing these processes, little…
Many eukaryotic cells are able to perform directional mechanosensing by directly measuring minute spatial differences in the mechanical stress on their membranes. Here, we explore the limits of a single mechanosensitive channel activation…
Optical tweezers, which are powerful tools for trapping and manipulating particles, have been widely used in many areas. However, their potential wells are typically symmetrical, which limit their capability of optical trapping and…
Bacterial biofilms underlie many persistent infections, posing major hurdles in antibiotic treatment. Here, we design and demonstrate tug-of-war optical tweezers that can facilitate assessment of cell-cell adhesion - a key contributing…
The soft character of organic materials leads to strong coupling between molecular nuclear and electronic dynamics. This coupling opens the way to control charge transport in organic electronic devices by inducing molecular vibrational…