Optical trapping of a metal particle and a water droplet by a scanning laser beam

Abstract

Laser trapping of a metal particle in water or a water droplet in liquid paraffin, which cannot be attained by irradiation of a TEM00 mode focused laser beam, was experimentally confirmed based on a scanning laser trapping technique. Although a metal particle or a water droplet experiences repulsive radiation force from a laser beam (1064 nm, focused into a ∼1 μm spot), scanning of the laser beam circularly around the particle was successful to optically trap and tweezer the particle. Water and ethylene glycol droplets dispersed in liquid paraffin were also shown to be manipulated independently by scanning double laser-beam trapping.