Optical Trapping: Final Report
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Authors
Bisson, Yannich
Bucciarelli, Dean
de Lint, Maaike
Hasting, Daniel
Jafs, Michael
Reed, Madison
Date
2021-05-26
Type
technical report
Language
en
Keyword
optics , physics
Alternative Title
Abstract
The Optical Trapping experiment uses the momentum of photons from a laser beam in order
to apply a trapping force onto 4.5 µm diameter polystyrene microspheres. When trapped in
this way, the spheres behave much like they would in a physical spring. This allows us to
search for a spring constant k for the trap as well as it’s maximum force output. While the
experiment was unable to trap any spheres, we were able to observe the Brownian motion of
the spheres due to temperature fluctuations and determined the diffusive coefficient of the
spheres in solution as being D = 0:0031(1) µm2/s: