The team trap molecules in a vacuum chamber (left) using magic-wavelength tweezers and other laser beams (right). Credit: Durham University By using specially tuned laser light in the optical tweezers ...

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging is essential for investigating cellular structure and dynamics. Traditional optical methods rely on adhesive or mechanical forces to hold and scan cells, which limit ...

In 1986, American physicist Arthur Ashkin developed a fascinating tool that could gently pick and move microscopic objects like cells and molecules without touching them. This tool, called optical ...

Light can be tailored and shaped in time and frequency (to create ultrafast tailored time pulses) as well as in its spatial degree of freedom. Such structured light has recently attracted the research ...

Optical tweezers use laser light to manipulate small particles. A new method has been advanced using Stampede2 supercomputer simulations that makes optical tweezers safer to use for potential ...

Discover the evolution of optical tweezers, a powerful tool used to manipulate particles at the microscopic scale. Explore their history, advancements, and wide-ranging applications in nanotechnology, ...

MIT researchers have harnessed integrated optical phased array (OPA) technology to develop a type of integrated optical tweezers, akin to a miniature, chip-based “tractor beam”—like the one that ...

No matter how small you make a pair of tweezers, there will always be things that tweezers aren’t great at handling. Among those are various fluids, and especially aerosolized droplets, which can’t be ...