Optical binding forces can be precisely controlled to realize a trap for self-organized optical matter, MIT researchers will report in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters.
Optical binding forces, reported in 1989 by Burns et al., manifest themselves as soon as multiple particles interact in an electromagnetic field. So far, these forces have been experimentally verified but they have never been actively controlled to achieve desired properties.
"Our paper shows for the first time a precise control of these forces," said Tomasz M. Grzegorczyk, a research scientist in
MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics. This is illustrated "by balancing the
radiation pressure from a laser light, a work pioneered by Ashkin in the 1970s-1980s, to realize an optical trap.
"Such control can be used to create reconfigurable field and force distributions with customizable properties in space and time, which have important applications in biology for the manipulation of small living organisms and in astronomy for the design of a giant space laser trapped mirror as postulated by Labeyrie in 1979."
Source: MIT
Related stories:
Using a light touch to measure protein bonds
MIT researchers have developed a novel technique to measure the strength of the bonds between two protein molecules important in cell machinery: Gently tugging them apart with light beams.
DNA technique yields 3-D crystalline organization of nanoparticles
In an achievement some see as the "holy grail" of nanoscience, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have for the first time used DNA to guide the creation of three-dimensional, ordered, crystalline structures of nanoparticles (particles with dimensions measured in billionths of a meter). The ability to engineer such 3-D structures is essential to producing functional materials that take advantage of the unique properties that may exist at the nanoscale - for example, enhanced magnetism, improved catalytic activity, or new optical properties. The research will be published in the January 31, 2008, issue of the journal
Nature.
Breaking down superfluidity
One of the most exciting areas of research in the last few years has been the realization of the BEC-BCS crossover, Wolfgang Ketterle tells
PhsyOrg.com. Ketterle and a team of scientists at the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms have completed the first study of critical velocities in this crossover region where magnetic tuning of the interactions is possible by a Feshbach resonance.
A clash of clusters provides another clue to dark matter
New Hubble and Chandra observations of the cluster known as MACSJ0025.4-1222 indicate that a titanic collision has separated dark from ordinary matter. This provides independent confirmation of a similar effect detected previously in a target dubbed the Bullet Cluster, showing that the Bullet Cluster is not an anomalous case.
Siemens builds a lock made of light: Data transfer using quantum cryptography
(PhysOrg.com) -- Electronic communication is becoming more secure all over the world. Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Austrian Research Centers (ARC) and Graz University of Technology have joined forces to develop the first quantum cryptography chip for commercial use. The chip, which protects data by generating a completely random sequence of numbers from particles of light, replaces the currently used system of key distribution based on mathematical algorithms.
E. coli discovery could lead to new antibacterial target
Northeastern University scientists have discovered a new and unique DNA binding property of a protein in E. coli. Penny J. Beuning, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, spent the last two years researching double and single-stranded DNA binding of E. coli DNA polymerase III alpha protein and notes that her findings have potential for developing a new antibacterial target.
'Sun-eating dragon' returns to China
Earth, the Sun and the Moon will align in a celestial ballet on Friday, rewarding China, where the first record of an eclipse was made more than 4,000 years ago, with a dazzling show. Longingly awaited, the first total solar eclipse since March 2006 kicks off at 0923 GMT, when the lunar shadow touches down on the fringes of Nunavut province in northern Canada.
Scientists break record by finding northernmost hydrothermal vent field
Well inside the Arctic Circle, scientists have found black smoker vents farther north than anyone has ever seen before. The cluster of five vents one towering nearly four stories in height are venting water as hot as 570 F.