Optical Tweezers

Traps and manipulates a single cell, bead, or molecule using nothing but a tightly focused laser beam, and reads out piconewton-scale forces directly from how far the trap is displaced.

References

• Ashkin, A., Dziedzic, J.M., Yamane, T., et al. "Optical Trapping and Manipulation of Viruses and Bacteria." Science 235, no. 4795 (1987): 1517–1520.