Optical tweezers
Videos
Optical tweezers are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner similar to
A photograph of a nanoparticle (diameter 103 nm) trapped by an optical tweezer. The nanoparticle can be seen as the tiny bright spot in the middle. For additional control two copper electrodes are placed above and below the particle.
A generic optical tweezer diagram with only the most basic components.
Arthur Ashkin
Videos
Arthur Ashkin was an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Labs. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of optical tweezers, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Ph
Optical tweezers
…molecules), quantum optics and quantum optomechanics (to study the interaction of single particles with light). The development of optical tweezing by Arthur Ashkin was lauded with the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. The detection of optical scattering and the gradient forces on micron sized particles was first reported…
Arthur Ashkin via video phone, December 2018