Tilt control in optical tweezers

Abstract

Laser trapping of micrometer-sized objects floating in water is investigated through the use of a tilted laser beam. With a change in the tilt direction, the orientation of the trapped object can be easily controlled when the object has an asymmetric body or nonuniform refractive index, such as nanowires, living cells, and so on. The method enables efficient orientation control under laser trapping through a simple setup. This method for tilt control may be useful for high-performance laser trapping in bioengineering and microsurgery in single living cells. © 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.