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Optical tweezers — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-07T17:42:06.840Z
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Optical tweezers — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_084a593ea7a9 (Metraipolis archive dc_084a593ea7a9, sha256 d48da7dafb021b2f661f175382a954ff307eeed44fb5c57f27ba3dc054b7917e)

BibTeX

@misc{dc084a593ea7a9,
  title = {Optical tweezers — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_084a593ea7a9; sha256 d48da7dafb021b2f661f175382a954ff307eeed44fb5c57f27ba3dc054b7917e},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

Optical tweezers (originally called single-beam gradient force trap) are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner similar to tweezers. If the object is held in air or vacuum without additional support, it can be called optical levitation. The laser light provides an attractive or repulsive force (typically on the order of piconewtons), depending on the relative refractive index between particle and surrounding medium. Levitation is possible if the force of the light counters the force of gravity. The trapped particles are usually micron-sized, or even smaller. Dielectric and absorbing particles can be trapped, too. Optical tweezers are used in biology and medicine (for example to grab and hold a single bacterium, a cell like a sperm cell or a blood cell, or a molecule like DNA), nanoengineering and nanochemistry (to study and build materials from single molecules), quantum optics and quantum optomechanics (to study the interaction of single particles with light). The development of optical tweezing by Arthur Ashkin was lauded with the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Tema degli esploratori: fisica e astronomia (deposito sistematico; categoria «Condensed matter physics»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Optical tweezers» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers
Wikidata Q1066633 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1066633
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1372336684, consultata il 2026-10-07T17:11:44.374Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 7f61fde875fe859e6da95716919bb218b7cba2604e21305782657709efb3990e