Optical tweezers: a tool for microscopic manipulation
An optical tweezer is a scientific instrument that uses a focused laser beam to provide an attractive or repulsive force on microscopic particles. The focused beam in the tweezers creates optical traps such that the tiny particles can be held, moved and easily manipulated. AO devices have got a large contribution in this domain. When the RF frequency is tuned on AO devices, the output diffracted beam’s position changes. It is this feature that is widely used in the optical tweezers.
Precision control with aods
Indeed, the AODs are used to steer the laser beam precisely and rapidly, enabling optical traps to be repositioned with high accuracy and facilitating the manipulation of particles or the tracking of dynamic biological processes.
Multiplexing capabilities
In addition, several frequencies can be injected at a time and as a result, a single beam is split into multiple diffracted beams and hence creating an array of optical traps simultaneously. This allows to trap and manipulate several particles at the same time, hence improving the efficiency of experiments.
