Related papers: Entrapping a polymer chain in a light well under a…
Trapping ultracold molecules in conservative traps is essential for applications -- such as quantum state-controlled chemistry, quantum simulations, and quantum information processing. These applications require high densities or…
As one of the leading acceleration mechanisms in laser-driven underdense plasmas, direct laser acceleration (DLA) is capable of producing high-energy-density electron beams in a plasma channel for many applications. However, the mechanism…
We experimentally demonstrate optical dipole trapping of a cloud of cold atoms by means of a dynamically coupled mode of a high-finesse cavity. We show that the trap requires a collective action of the atoms, i.e. a single atom would not be…
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…
The adsorption of DNA or other polyelectrolyte molecules on charged membranes is a recurrent motif in soft matter and bionanotechnological systems. Two typical situations encountered are the deposition of single DNA chains onto substrates…
Standard optical tweezers rely on optical forces that arise when a focused laser beam interacts with a microscopic particle: scattering forces, which push the particle along the beam direction, and gradient forces, which attract it towards…
We present theoretical and experimental results of coherent population trapping spectra on a multi-level $^{40}$Ca$^+$-type configuration, adding a third beam to the standard two-laser $\Lambda$ system to avoid undesired optical pumping. We…
Recently, the concept of strong light-matter coupling has been demonstrated in semiconductor structures, and it is poised to revolutionize the design and implementation of components, including solid state lasers and detectors. We…
For several decades, ions have been trapped by radio frequency (RF) and neutral particles by optical fields. We implement the experimental proof-of-principle for trapping an ion in an optical dipole trap. While loading, initialization and…
Optical dipole-traps are used in various scientific fields, including classical optics, quantum optics and biophysics. Here, we propose and implement a dipole-trap for nanoparticles that is based on focusing from the full solid angle with a…
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…
Biomolecules exhibit dynamic conformations critical to their functions, yet observing these processes at the single-molecule level under native conditions remains a formidable challenge. While surface immobilization has been widely used to…
We present methods and results of the testing of an inexpensive home-made diffraction limited lens system, the design of which was proposed in a recent paper and which has since been used (with slight alterations) by several research…
The manipulation of microparticles using optical forces has led to many applications in the life and physical sciences. To extend optical trapping towards the nano-regime, in this work we demonstrate trapping of single nanoparticles in…
This tutorial provides a hands-on entry point about laser locking for atomic vapor research and related research such as laser cooling. We furthermore introduce common materials and methods for the fabrication of vapor cells as a tool for…
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 propose and demonstrate the laser cooling and trapping of Rydberg-dressed Sr atoms. By off-resonantly coupling the excited state of a narrow (7 kHz) cooling transition to a high-lying Rydberg state, we transfer Rydberg properties such as…
Dielectrophoresis can potentially be used as an efficient trapping tool in the fabrication of molecular devices. For nanoscale objects, however, the Brownian motion poses a challenge. We show that the use of carbon nanotube electrodes makes…
Controlling the transport, trapping, and filtering of nanoparticles is important for many applications. By virtue of their weak response to gravity and their thermal motion, various physical mechanisms can be exploited for such operations…
The dynamics of polymer translocation through a pore has been the subject of recent theoretical and experimental works. We have considered theoretical estimates and performed computer simulations to understand the mechanism of DNA uptake…