Optical tweezers toolbox: better, faster, cheaper; choose all three

Alexander B. Stilgoe; Michael J. Mallon; Yongyin Cao; Timo A. Nieminen; Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop

doi:10.1117/12.929365

10 October 2012 Optical tweezers toolbox: better, faster, cheaper; choose all three

Alexander B. Stilgoe, Michael J. Mallon, Yongyin Cao, Timo A. Nieminen, Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop

Proceedings Volume 8458, Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation IX; 84582E (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.929365
Event: SPIE NanoScience + Engineering, 2012, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Numerical computation of optical tweezers is one path to understanding the subtleties of their underlying mechanism—electromagnetic scattering. Electromagnetic scattering models of optical trapping can be used to find the properties of the optical forces and torques acting on trapped particles. These kinds of calculations can assist in predicting the outcomes of particular trapping configurations. Experimentally, looking at the parameter space is time consuming and in most cases unfruitful. Theoretically, the same limitations exist but are easier to troubleshoot and manage. Towards this end a new more usable optical tweezers toolbox has been written. Understanding of the underlying theory has been improved, as well as the regimes of applicability of the methods available to the toolbox. Here we discus the physical principles and carry out numerical comparisons of performance of the old toolbox with the new one and the reduced (but portable) code.

Citation Download Citation

Alexander B. Stilgoe, Michael J. Mallon, Yongyin Cao, Timo A. Nieminen, and Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop "Optical tweezers toolbox: better, faster, cheaper; choose all three", Proc. SPIE 8458, Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation IX, 84582E (10 October 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.929365

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