Optical tweezers: theory and practice

By G. Pesce, P. Jones, Onofrio M. Maragò, Giovanni Volpe. The European Physical Journal Plus, 2020

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The possibility for the manipulation of many different samples using only the light from a laser beam opened the way to a variety of experiments. The technique, known as Optical Tweezers, is nowadays employed in a multitude of applications demonstrating its relevance. Since the pioneering work of Arthur Ashkin, where he used a single strongly focused laser beam, ever more complex experimental set-ups are required in order to perform novel and challenging experiments. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the theoretical background and experimental techniques. We start by giving an overview of the theory of optical forces: first, we consider optical forces in approximated regimes when the particles are much larger (ray optics) or much smaller (dipole approximation) than the light wavelength; then, we discuss the full electromagnetic theory of optical forces with a focus on T-matrix methods. Then, we describe the important aspect of Brownian motion in optical traps and its implementation in optical tweezers simulations. Finally, we provide a general description of typical experimental setups of optical tweezers and calibration techniques with particular emphasis on holographic optical tweezers.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Biomedical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c41e995d99643ba35588241f10eec0ea5323338e