Manipulation of large, irregular-shape particles using contour-tracking optical tweezers

May 15, 2024 · 2 min read

* Figure: Modified from Ref.1

This research focuses on realization of manipulation of large (sub mm scale) and irregularly shaped particles, which is very challenging for conventional optical tweezers.
It proposes the concept of Contour-tracking Optical Tweezers (CTOTs), which conducts contour extraction from microscope camera images and generation of illumination patterns that scan the contour in real time. As a proof of concept, stable trapping of large (>50 µm), irregular-shape polystyrene particles, which is impossible for conventional optical tweezers, was successfully demonstrated in the experiment.

この研究は,従来の光ピンセットでは非常に難しかった,粗大(サブmmスケール)・不規則形状粒子の操作の実現に着目しています.この研究では,顕微カメラ画像からの輪郭抽出と,その輪郭に沿った光照射パターンの生成をリアルタイムに行うという輪郭トラッキング光ピンセット(CTOTs)の概念を提案しています.また,その概念実証として,従来の光ピンセットではできなかった,50 µm以上かつ不規則形状のポリスチレン粒子の姿勢安定トラップを実験で実現することに成功しています.

Articles

  1. R. Omine, S. Masui, S. Kadoya, M. Michihata, and S. Takahashi, “Manipulation of large, irregular-shape particles using contour-tracking optical tweezers,” Optics Letters, vol. 49, no. 10, pp. 2773–2776, 2024, doi: 10.1364/OL.524424.
    This article was chosen for Editors’ pick, and featured in Optica News Releases (only ~1% of all articles in Optica publishing group are chosen)
    この論文はEditors’ pickに選出され,さらにOptica News Releases(Optica Publishing Groupの約1%の論文のみが選出)にも掲載されました.