Light as Puppeteer

Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have demonstrated a more robust method for controlling single, micron-sized particles with light.

Passing light along optical microfibers or nanofibers to manipulate particles has gained popularity in the past decade and has an array of promising applications in physics and biology. Most research has focused on using this technique with the basic profile of light, known as the fundamental mode. Researchers in the OIST Light-Matter Interactions Unit successfully demonstrated that changing the profile of the light distribution into “higher order modes” provides a stronger optical force that can be used to trap and propel tiny polystyrene beads along a microfiber much faster than if they use the fundamental mode. Their findings were recently published in Scientific Reports.

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