Issue |
EPL
Volume 99, Number 5, September 2012
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 58004 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/99/58004 | |
Published online | 13 September 2012 |
Force sensing with a shaped dielectric micro-tool
1 H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol - Bristol, BS8 1TL, UK, EU
2 SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow - Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK, EU
3 Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol - Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK, EU
Received: 9 July 2012
Accepted: 9 August 2012
We analyse the thermal motion of a holographically trapped non-spherical force probe, capable of interrogating arbitrary samples with nanometer resolution. High speed video stereo-microscopy is used to track the translational and rotational coordinates of the micro-tool in three dimensions, and the complete 6 × 6 stiffness matrix for the system is determined using equipartition theorem. The Brownian motion of the extended structure is described in terms of a continuous distribution of thermal ellipsoids. A centre of optical stress, at which rotational and translational motion is uncoupled, is observed and controlled. Once calibrated, the micro-tool is deployed in two modes of operation: as a force sensor with <150 femto-Newton sensitivity, and in a novel form of photonic force microscopy.
PACS: 87.80.Cc – Optical trapping / 81.07.-b – Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization / 45.40.-f – Dynamics and kinematics of rigid bodies
© EPLA, 2012
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