Single tapered fiber optical tweezers

Abstract

A single tapered fiber optical tweezers is demonstrated experimentally based on a fused tapered fiber probe. Yeast cells immersed in water were trapped at the tip of the fiber probe and moved in 3 dimensions at a certain velocity. The trapping force, both axial and transverse, can only be attributed to the force effect of the optical field emerging from the end of the fiber probe. The output optical field was numerically simulated by using a BPM (beam propagation method) method. It is qualitatively discussed that such optical field own the ability to form a 3-D optical trap.