Related papers: Plasmonic nano-optical trap stiffness measurements…
Optical tweezers find applications in various fields, ranging from biology to physics. One of the fundamental steps necessary to perform quantitative measurements using trapped particles is the calibration of the tweezer's spring constant.…
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…
Rotational optical tweezers are used to probe the mechanical properties of unknown microsystems. Quantifying the angular trap stiffness is essential for interpreting the rotational dynamics of probe particles. While methods to determine…
Optical tweezers exploit light--matter interactions to trap particles ranging from single atoms to micrometer-sized eukaryotic cells. For this reason, optical tweezers are a ubiquitous tool in physics, biology, and nanotechnology. Recently,…
Dual trap optical tweezers are often used in high-resolution measurements in single-molecule biophysics. Such measurements can be hindered by the presence of extraneous noise sources, the most prominent of which is the coupling of…
Non-invasive and ultra-accurate optical manipulation of nanometer objects has recently gained a growing interest as a powerful enabling tool in nanotechnology and biophysics. In this context, Self-Induced Back-Action (SIBA) trapping in…
We present a novel technique for measuring the characteristics of a magneto-optical trap for cold atoms by monitoring the spontaneous emission from trapped atoms coupled into the guided mode of a tapered optical nanofiber. We show that the…
Controlled trapping of light absorbing nanoparticles with low-power optical tweezers is crucial for remote manipulation of small objects. This study takes advantage of the synergetic effects of tightly confined local fields of plasmonic…
Optical tweezers (OT) have become an essential technique in several fields of physics, chemistry, and biology as precise micromanipulation tools and microscopic force transducers. Quantitative measurements require the accurate calibration…
We present experimental techniques and results related to the optimization and characterization of our nanofiber-based atom trap [Vetsch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203603 (2010)]. The atoms are confined in an optical lattice which is…
In this article we explore the requirements for enabling high quality optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectroscopy in a conventional gradient force optical tweezers using nanodiamonds containing nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^{-}$)…
Optical trapping has proven to be a valuable experimental technique for precisely controlling small dielectric objects. However, due to their very nature, conventional optical traps are diffraction limited and require high intensities to…
We present a dual-trap optical tweezers setup which directly measures forces using linear momentum conservation. The setup uses a counter-propagating geometry, which allows momentum measurement on each beam separately. The experimental…
Recently, acoustic tweezers based on an array of ultrasonic transducers have been reported taking inspiration from holographic optical tweezers. In the latter technique, the calibration of the optical trap is an essential procedure to…
Optical tweezers that utilize a highly focused, linearly polarized laser beam exhibit strong trap stiffness asymmetry, which originates from the anisotropic field distribution in the transverse plane. Based on the previous study of…
We perform free-fall experiments with a charge-neutral, optically levitated nanoparticle. This is achieved using an optical tweezer that can be rapidly toggled on and off and vertically displaced, enabling the particle to be released and…
Recently single-beam intracavity optical tweezers have been reported and achieved orders-of-magnitude higher confinement than standard optical tweezers. However, there is only one feedback loop between the trapped particle's…
We have used a gold nanohole array to trap single polystyrene nanoparticles, with a mean diameter of 30 nm, into separated hot spots located at connecting nanoslot regions. A high trap stiffness of approximately 0.85 fN/(nmmW) at a low…
Plasmonic nanopores are extensively investigated as single molecules detectors. The main limitations in plasmonic nanopore technology are the too fast translocation velocity of the molecule through the pore and the consequent very short…
Plasmonic nano-antennas can focus light to nanometre length-scales providing intense field enhancements. For the tightest optical confinements (0.5-5 nm) achieved in plasmonic gaps, the gap spacing, refractive index, and facet width play a…