Related papers: Optical trapping with structured light
When light is confined in all three directions and in dimensions of the order of the light wavelength, full discretization of the photon spectra and distinctive phenomena occur, the Purcell effect and the inhibition of emission of atoms…
Optical dipole traps and fractional Talbot optical lattices based on the interference between multiple co-propagating laser beams are proposed. The variation of relative amplitudes and phases of the interfering light beams of these traps…
Emulsions are ubiquitous in everyday life and find applications in various industries. Optical tweezers (OTs) have emerged as the preferred method for studying emulsion dynamics. In this review, we first introduce the theory of optical…
Since its invention by Arthur Ashkin and colleagues at Bell Labs in the 1970s, optical micromanipulation, also known as optical tweezers or laser tweezers, has evolved remarkably to become one of the most convenient and versatile tools for…
We present the first successful trapping of single erbium atoms in an array of optical tweezers. Using a single narrow-line optical transition, we achieve deep cooling for direct tweezer loading, pairwise ejection, and continous imaging…
Multi-step assembly of individual protein building blocks is key to the formation of essential higher-order structures inside and outside of cells. Optical tweezers is a technique well suited to investigate the mechanics and dynamics of…
We demonstrate a miniature, fiber-coupled optical tweezer to trap a single atom. The same fiber is used to trap a single atom and to read out its fluorescence. To obtain a low background level, the tweezer light is chopped, and we measure…
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…
Arrays of optical tweezers form the backbone of neutral atoms analog and digital quantum processors. However, the inter-trap distance remains generally much larger than the size of the tweezers to avoid interference-induced trap…
Conventional optical tweezers are generated by the intensity gradient of highly focused laser beams, but the requirement of strong intensity gradient limits the tunability of optical traps. Here we show a new type of optical tweezers with…
In this paper we present a theoretical method, together with its experimental confirmation, to obtain structures of light by connecting diffraction-resistant cylindrical beams of finite lengths and different radii. The resulting…
Fully internal and motional state controlled and individually manipulable polar molecules are desirable for many quantum science applications leveraging the rich state space and intrinsic interactions of molecules. While prior efforts at…
We study the interaction of a light beams carrying angular momentum with a single, trapped and well localized ion. We provide a detailed calculation of selection rules and excitation probabilities for quadrupole transitions. The results…
Micron sized, neutral, non-dielectric particles immersed in a viscous fluid can be trapped in the focal plane of a Gaussian beam. A particle can absorb energy from such a beam with a large radial intensity gradient, resulting in substantial…
Optical manipulation has attracted remarkable interest owing to its versatile and non-invasive nature. However, conventional optical trapping remains inefficient for the nanoscopic world. The emergence of plasmonics in recent years has…
The fast-growing field of soft matter research requires increasingly sophisticated tools for experimental studies. One of the oldest and most widely used tools to study soft matter systems is optical microscopy. Recent advances in optical…
We demonstrate that tight focusing of a circularly polarized Gaussian beam in optical tweezers leads to spin-momentum locking - with the transverse spin angular momentum density being independent of helicity, while the transverse momentum…
Optical trapping and manipulation using laser beams play a key role in many areas including biology, atomic science, and nanofabrication. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate the first use of a vortex-pair beam in optical…
Optical tweezers, formed by tightly focused propagating laser beams, offer the unique capability to trap and control microscopic particles over a broad size range. However, the diffraction inherent to propagating optical fields, limits the…
It is common to introduce optical tweezers using either geometric optics for large particles or the Rayleigh approximation for very small particles. These approaches are successful at conveying the key ideas behind optical tweezers in their…