Optical tweezers

Microscopic particles can be held and moved with laser beams called optical tweezers. This technology has recently undergone a revolution with the addition of spatial light modulators (SLMs) — computer-controlled holograms — to the beam path, turning optical tweezers into very versatile micro-manipulation tools. We are part of this revolution, extending the possibilities of 3D optical manipulation.

This is a video introduction to the work we do with Holographic Optical Tweezers, made in 2010. To find out more, you can find our publication, news stories and more videos on this website.

• We have produced a suite of software relating to optical tweezers, which is free to download for non-commercial use. This includes an easy-to-use OpenGL program to calculate holograms on the graphics card.
• For our tweezers publications, see the publications section.