Capped colloids as light-mills in optical traps

Capped colloids as light-mills in optical traps

Custom-designed colloidal particles in optical tweezers act as lightmills in a fluid. In particular, aqueous suspensions of capped silica colloids, in which half of the surface is covered with metal layers, are investigated. Due to their asymmetry, the capped colloids can act as rotators when exposed to intense laser fields. Particles of 4.7μm in diameter are observed rotating around the focus ...

nd - m at . s of t ] 1 8 M ay 2 00 6 Capped colloids as light - mills in optical traps

Custom-designed colloidal particles in an optical tweezers act as light-mills in a fluid. In particular, aqueous suspensions of capped colloids, in which half of the surface is covered with metal layers, are investigated. Due to their asymmetry, the capped colloids can act as rotators when exposed to intense laser fields. Particles of 4.7 µm in diameter are observed rotating around the focus of...

Capped Colloids as Model Systems for Condensed Matter

Eliminating light shifts in single-atom optical traps

Microscopically controlled neutral atoms in optical tweezers and lattices have led to exciting advances in the study of quantum information and quantum many-body systems. The light shifts of atomic levels from the trapping potential in these systems can result in detrimental effects such as fluctuating dipole force heating, inhomogeneous detunings, and inhibition of laser cooling, which limits ...

Light Traps

In the February 1992 issue of the American Mathematical Monthly, J. E. Connett [1] asked whether it is possible to construct a 'light trap': a re ective-sided container with the property that a beam of light, shone into it from an appropriate direction, would be re ected inside it over and over again and never escape. Connett suggests that such a trap might be of value as a device to store ligh...