Photon-efficient optical tweezers via wavefront shaping.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38968347.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adi7792 and PMC identifier 11225778.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Optical tweezers enable noncontact trapping of microscale objects using light. It is not known how tightly it is possible to three-dimensionally (3D) trap microparticles with a given photon budget. Reaching this elusive limit would enable maximally stiff particle trapping for precision measurements on the nanoscale and photon-efficient tweezing of light-sensitive objects. Here, we customize the shape of light fields to suit specific particles, with the aim of optimizing trapping stiffness in 3D. We show, theoretically, that the confinement volume of microspheres held in sculpted optical traps can be reduced by one to two orders of magnitude. Experimentally, we use a wavefront shaping-inspired strategy to passively suppress the Brownian fluctuations of microspheres in every direction concurrently, demonstrating order-of-magnitude reductions in their confinement volumes. Our work paves the way toward the fundamental limits of optical control over the mesoscopic realm.