Optical tweezers trapping forces

In optical tweezer experiments, the optical scattering force is used to trap particles, but the force can also be used to control the shape of liquid droplets26. An infrared laser with 43-mW power focused onto a microdroplet on a superhydrophobic surface enabled up to 40% reversible tuning of the equatorial diameter of the droplet26. Such effects must naturally also be taken into account when exciting laser modes in droplets in experiments with levitated drops. 

Figure 2. (Left) Experimental setup in force flow measurements. Optical tweezers are used to trap beads but forces are applied on the RNApol-DNA molecular complex using the Stokes drag force acting on the left bead immersed in the flow. In this setup, force assists RNA transcription as the DNA tether between beads increases in length as a function of time, (a) The contour length of the DNA tether as a function of time and (b) the transcription rate as a function of the contour length. Pauses (temporary arrests of transcription) are shown as vertical arrows. (From Ref. 25.) (See color insert.)...

In general, neither the force nor the molecular extension can be controlled in the experiments so definitions in Eqs. (96), (98), and (99) result in approximations to the true mechanical work that satisfy Eqs. (40) and (41). The control parameter in single molecule experiments using optical tweezers is the distance between the center of the trap and the immobilized bead [88]. Both the position of the bead in the trap and the extension of the handles are fluctuating quantities. It has been observed [94—96] that in pulhng experiments the proper work that satisfies the FT includes some corrections to Eqs. (97) and (99) mainly due to the effect of the trapped bead. There are two considerations to take into account when analyzing experimental data. 

The radiation pressure exerted by light is very weak. A bright laser beam of several milliwatts of power can exert only a few piconewtons (pN) of force. However, a force of 10 pN is enough to pull a cell of E. coli through water ten times faster than it can swim.213 In about 1986, it was found that a laser beam focused down to a spot of - one K ( 1 pm for an infrared laser) can trap and hold in its focus a retractile bead of 1 pm diameter. This "optical tweezers" has become an important experimental tool with many uses.213 214 For example, see Fig. 19-19. Not only are optical tweezers of utility in studying biological motors but also mechanical properties of all sorts of macromolecules can be examined. For example, DNA can be stretched and its extensibility measured.215 Actin filaments have even been tied into knots 216... 

Figure 12 Combination of dielectrophoretic field cage (DFC) and optical tweezers (OT) for the measurement of bead-cell adhesion (A) 4.1-(xm polystyrene particle trapped with laser tweezers (right) in contact with T-lymphoma cell ( — 1 5 pm in diameter). Cell and bead were brought into contact. The time for stable adhesion was measured. (B) Schematic representation of the experimental system used to measure the adhesion forces between bead and cell with the cell trapped in a DFC and the bead trapped in the laser focus of the OT. (C) Probing different surface regions of the cell for bead-cell adhesion (five beads are attached to a single cell). (Reprinted from Ref. 91 with permission.)...

A particularly important variant of the optical force, interparticle forces, turns out to be crucial for SERS. This effect is similar to the attractive van der Waals force between small particles, which is due to interactions between spontaneously fluctuating dipoles, but the optical interaction is due to coupling between the actual particle dipoles induced by the trapping laser. Due to the interparticle optical forces, metal nanoparticles aggregate in an optical tweezers and produce hotspots, i.e., particle junctions with intense local fields for SERS. Raman probes can be excited either by the trapping laser or, preferably, by a separate low power beam that does not disturb the trapping. 

A. Ashkin, J.M. Dziedzic, J.E. Bjorkholm, S. Chu, Observation of a single beam gradient force optical trap for dielectric particles. Opt. Lett. 11, 288-290 (1986) M.J. Lang, S.M. Block, Resource letter LBOT-1 Laser-based optical tweezers. Am. J. Phys. 71, 201-215 (2003)... 

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