Optical forces, generally arising from changes of field gradients or linear momentum carried
by photons, form the basis for optical trapping and manipulation. Advances in optical forces …

The fact that light carries both linear and angular momentum is well-known to physicists.
One application of the linear momentum of light is for optical tweezers, in which the …

Owing to Brownian-motion effects, the precise manipulation of individual micro-and
nanoparticles in solution is challenging. Therefore, scanning-probe-based techniques, such …

Optical tweezers use the forces exerted by a strongly focused beam of light to trap and move
objects ranging in size from tens of nanometres to tens of micrometres. Since their …

Since their invention just over 20 years ago, optical traps have emerged as a powerful tool
with broad-reaching applications in biology and physics. Capabilities have evolved from …

Light-powered molecular machines are conjectured to be essential constituents of future
nanoscale devices. As a model for such systems, we have synthesized a polymer of bistable …

An interferometric pattern between two annular laser beams is used to construct three-
dimensional (3D) trapped structures within an optical tweezers setup. In addition to being …

We demonstrate an optical system that can apply and accurately measure the torque
exerted by the trapping beam on a rotating birefringent probe particle. This allows the …

Optical trapping is the craft of manipulating objects with light. Decades after its first inception
in 1970, the technique has become a powerful tool for ultracold‐atom physics and …

We propose a single beam method for generating optical vortices with tunable optical
angular momentum without altering the intensity distribution. With the initial polarization …