Pulse Laser Assist optical Tweezers (PLAT) with long-duration pulse laser

Abstract

Optical tweezers is a technique to trap and to manipulate micron sized objects under a microscope by radiation pressure force exerted by a laser beam. Optical tweezers has been utilized for single-molecular measurements of force exerted by molecular interactions and for cell palpation. To extend applications of optical tweezers we have developed a novel optical tweezers system combined with a pulse laser. We utilize a pulse laser (Q-switched Nd: YAG laser, wavelength of 1064 nm) to assist manipulations by conventional optical tweezers with a continuous wave (CW) laser. The pulse laser beam is introduced into the same optics for conventional optical tweezers. In principle, instantaneous radiation force is proportional to instantaneous power of laser beam. As a result, pulse laser beam generates strong instantaneous force on an object to be manipulated. If the radiation force becomes strong enough to get over an obstacle structure and/or to be released from adhesion, the object will be free from these difficulties. We investigate the effect of pulse laser assistance with changing pulse duration of the laser. We report optimum pulse duration of 100 ns to 200 ns deduced from motion analysis of a particle in a beam spot. Our goal is to realize in-vivo manipulation and operation of a cell. For this purpose we need to reduce light energy of pulse laser beam and to avoid laser induced breakdown caused by strong light field. So we have developed a pulse laser with 160-ns pulse duration and have confirmed that availability on manipulation of living cells.