#optical traps

[sadoldjonny]

Arthur Ashkin, 98, Dies; Nobel Laureate Invented a ‘Tractor Beam’

It isn’t quite “Star Trek,” but his optical tweezers use the pressure of light in a laser beam to seize and manipulate microscopic objects, from atoms to living cells.

[randdmag]

Optical traps on chip manipulate many molecules at once

Optical trapping, a technique for studying single molecules, is traditionally delicate, requiring special equipment and a soundproof room, with data collected one molecule at a time.

Cornell physicists have shrunk the technology of an optical trap, which uses light to suspend and manipulate molecules like DNA and proteins, onto a single chip. And instead of just one molecule at a time, the new device can potentially trap hundreds of molecules at once, reducing month-long experiments to days.

Read More - http://www.rdmag.com/news/2014/04/optical-traps-chip-manipulate-many-molecules-once

[woodvavb027-blog]

Laser Cooling and Trapping

Laser Cooling and Trapping Intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates with some basic knowledge of optics and quantum mechanics, this text begins with a review of the relevant results of quantum mechanics, before turning to the electromagnetic interactions involved in slowing and trapping atoms and ions, in both magnetic and optical traps. The concluding chapters discuss a broad range of applications, from atomic clocks and studies of collision processes, to diffraction and interference of atomic beams at optical lattices and Bose-Einstein condensation.