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Nanonewton optical force trap employing anti-reflection coated, high-refractive-index titania microspheres

Nature Photonics volume 6, pages 469–473 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Optical tweezers are exquisite position and force transducers and are widely used for high-resolution measurements in fields as varied as physics, biology and materials science1,2,3. Typically, small dielectric particles are trapped in a tightly focused laser and are often used as handles for sensitive force measurements. Improvement to the technique has largely focused on improving the instrument and shaping the light beam1,4, and there has been little work exploring the benefit of customizing the trapped object5. Here, we describe how anti-reflection coated, high-refractive-index core–shell particles composed of titania enable single-beam optical trapping with an optical force greater than a nanonewton. The increased force range broadens the scope of feasible optical trapping experiments and will pave the way towards more efficient light-powered miniature machines, tools and applications.

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Figure 1: Calculations.
Figure 2: Measurement of trap stiffness.
Figure 3: Escape force measurements in oil.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank V. Bormuth for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Emmy Noether Program), the European Research Council (ERC starting grant 2010), EU project Nanodirect (CP-FP-213948-2) and Technische Universität Dresden.

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Author notes

  1. Ahmet F. Demirörs & Peter D. J. van Oostrum

    Present address: Present address: Non-Equilibrium Energy Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA (A.F.D.), Department of NanoBiotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 11-II, 1190 Vienna, Austria (P.D.J.v.O),

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanomechanics Group, Biotechnology Center, TU Dresden, Tatzberg 47/49, Dresden, 01307, Germany

    Anita Jannasch & Erik Schäffer

  2. Soft Condensed Matter, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, CC Utrecht, 3584, The Netherlands

    Ahmet F. Demirörs, Peter D. J. van Oostrum & Alfons van Blaaderen

Authors
  1. Anita Jannasch
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  2. Ahmet F. Demirörs
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  3. Peter D. J. van Oostrum
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  4. Alfons van Blaaderen
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  5. Erik Schäffer
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Contributions

E.S. designed research. A.J. performed measurements. A.J. and A.F.D. synthesized the particles. A.v.B. advised on the synthesis. A.J. and P.D.J.v.O. performed theoretical calculations. A.J. and E.S. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Erik Schäffer.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Jannasch, A., Demirörs, A., van Oostrum, P. et al. Nanonewton optical force trap employing anti-reflection coated, high-refractive-index titania microspheres. Nature Photon 6, 469–473 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.140

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