Soft probing with optical tweezers

Soft probing with optical tweezers
Surfaces separate outside from inside, control chemical reactions, and regulate the exchange of light, heat, and moisture. They thus play a special role in nature and technology. In the journal Nature Nanotechnology ("Surface imaging beyond the diffraction limit with optically trapped spheres"), the Freiburg physicist Prof. Dr. Alexander Rohrbach and his former PhD candidate Dr.. Lars Friedrich have presented an ultra-soft surface scanning method based on an optical trap and optical forces. Microscopy methods like these make it possible to measure particularly sensitive and minuscule structures without destroying them.