Researchers from the Institute of Physics. The Kirensky Siberian Branch of the LV Russian Academy of Sciences and the Samara Branch of the Lebedev Institute of Physics have developed a method that makes it possible to simultaneously create a series of optical traps, each of which can be independently controlled. The scientists’ work has been published in the journal Laser Physics Letters.
Optical tweezers or optical traps are devices that allow microscopic objects to be moved using gentle pressure. They widely use vortex laser beams.
The method proposed by Russian scientists makes it possible to create a series of optical traps based on optical vortices with certain positions. At the same time, the parameters of each trap can be controlled independently from the rest of the array.
Objects captured by a vortex laser beam, including living cells, rotate in a specific orbit with a specific angular velocity and direction of rotation. At the same time, the beams that make up the optical tweezers have an orbital angular momentum that characterizes the moment of force acting on a microparticle, explains one of the researchers, a researcher at the Institute of Physics. LV Kirensky SB RAS Denis Ikonnikov.
Source: Ferra

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