Non-destructive optical trap for biological particles and method of doing same
AssigneesAmerican Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories
InventorsArthur Ashkin, Joseph M. Dziedzic
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Biological particles are successfully trapped in a single-beam gradient force trap using an infrared laser. The high numerical aperture lens objective in the trap is also used for simultaneous viewing. Several modes of trapping operation are presented.
Claims5
Apparatus for generating a single-beam gradient force optical trap of particles, said apparatus comprising a laser for generating a light beam at a predetermined wavelength and means for focusing said light beam with sufficient convergence to form said optical trap in a predetermined region, said apparatus
- characterized in that
- said predetermined wavelength is substantially included in the infrared range of wavelengths between 0.8 .mu.m and 1.8 .mu.m inclusively, so that said trap non-destructively confines at least one biological particle.
Apparatus for generating a single-beam gradient force optical trap of particles, said apparatus being comprised of a laser for generating a light beam at a predetermined wavelength and means for focusing said light beam with sufficient convergence to form said optical trap in a predetermined region, said apparatus
- characterized in that
- said predetermined wavelength is substantially included in the infrared range of wavelengths, so that said trap non-destructively confines at least one biological particle,
- said apparatus further including means for generating a second light beam substantially at the predetermined wavelength, said second light beam focused by said focusing means to form a second optical trap in a second predetermined region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.