Laser optical tweezer (trap)
Device description:
Optical tweezers (also called optical trap) allow the capture of microscopic particles in a liquid environment using a focused laser beam. This allows micromanipulation of particles, tracking of microscopic molecular movements and measurement of microscopic forces (of various origins) acting on the trapped objects. A typical, but not exclusive, use of the instrument is to measure microscopic forces between interacting biomolecules and to track their movements. The specimen can be placed under a conventional cover glass or in a microfluidic chip.
The optical tweezers have been assembled in our laboratory and consist of a set of optical elements allowing the IR laser beam to be guided and focused on the slide placed on the stage of a fluorescence optical microscope and the detection of the back-reflected radiation by a position-sensitive detector (PSD). The control of the system and the evaluation of the data is performed by in-house software.
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Key features:
- Detection of particles with diameters in tens to units of µm.
- Measurement of the trajectory of the trapped particle in the trap.
- Possibility to control the movement of the trap in the focal plane of the lens.
- Observation of the slide by light or fluorescence microscopy.
- Automated evaluation of target variables.
- Possible use of microfluidic chips.
Location:
Department of Physics and Materials Engineering
Responsible person:
Name: assoc. prof. RNDr. Marek Ingr, Ph.D.
Phone.: +420 576 03 1 417
Cell phone:
E-mail: ingr@utb.cz
Office: U15/428