| Posted: April 8, 2008 |
Chinese scientists make breakthrough in the field of optical tweezers |
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(Nanowerk News) Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and CAS Knowledge Innovation Program, Prof. LI Yinmei from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) recently has been successful in capturing 100-nanometer particles of polystyrene using optical tweezers (OT). At the same time, the particles can be viewed in the entire microscopic field.
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| Observation and capturing of 100-nanometer particles of polystyrene using optical tweezers
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OT was one of the important inventions in the field of laser technology at the end of the 20th century. It manipulates microparticles efficiently applying the mechanics effect of light, and is used for studying the reciprocity of matter at the nanoscale. Although OT can capture the transparent particles with sizes less than 100 nanometers, it is difficult to observe them due to the resolution limit of optical microscopes. Hence, the research bottle-neck is how to observe the nanoparticles while capturing them.
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Prof. Li has developed the key technique that makes the trap of OT and the imaging field of microscopes to overlap accurately. The OT technology realized the control of the Brownian Motion of a single particle in liquid state and provided a new method studying the light scattering properties of a single particle.
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