Nanoaperture optical tweezers are emerging as useful label-free, free-solution tools for the detection and identification of biological molecules and their interactions at the single molecule level. Nanoaperture optical tweezers provide a low-cost, scalable, straight-forward, high-speed and highly sensitive (SNR ∼ 33) platform to observe real-time dynamics and to quantify binding kinetics of pr...

Several structural modifications to the original molecular tweezers of the Klärner's group were made with the aim of improving its binding capacity towards anions. The proposed modifications raise the molecular electrostatic potential inside the cavity and provide more conformational flexibility. The complexes of these new molecules with the halide anions Cl(-), Br(-), I(-) were optimized at th...

Optical trapping of single biological cells has become an established technique for controlling and studying fundamental behavior of single cells with their environment without having "many-body" interference. The development of such an instrument for optical diagnostics (including Raman and fluorescence for molecular diagnostics) via laser spectroscopy with either the "trapping" beam or second...

Robust cooling and nondestructive imaging are prerequisites for many emerging applications of neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers, such as their use quantum information science analog simulation. The tasks can be challenged, however, by the presence large trap-induced shifts respective transitions. Here, we explore a system K39 near-detuned (780nm) tweezer, which leads to relatively minor...

Optical traps or "tweezers" use high-power, near-infrared laser beams to manipulate and apply forces to biological systems, ranging from individual molecules to cells. Although previous studies have established that optical tweezers induce photodamage in live cells, the effects of trap irradiation have yet to be examined in vitro, at the single-molecule level. In this study, we investigate trap...