Development of an Inverted Optical Tweezers with Full Motional Control

Abstract

A working optical tweezers setup was created and optimized by maximizing the gradient force. Yeast cells were successfully trapped and manipulated three-dimensionally. The trap’s radius of control was approximately 5μm and the stability of the trap lasted greater than an hour. Thirty percent power efficiency was achieved by careful alignment procedures. The tweezers exerted a 0.9pN force when manipulating particles on the xy-plane and a 0.4pN force when manipulating particles up the z-axis. Both forces were within the required range for optical manipulation techniques in the biological field