Speckle Optical Tweezers published in Opt. Express

Speckle optical tweezers: Micromanipulation with random light fields

Speckle optical tweezers: Micromanipulation with random light fields
Giorgio Volpe, Lisa Kurz, Agnese Callegari, Giovanni Volpe & Sylvain Gigan
Optics Express 22(15), 18159—18167 (2014)
DOI: 10.1364/OE.22.018159
arXiv: 1403.0364

Current optical manipulation techniques rely on carefully engineered setups and samples. Although similar conditions are routinely met in research laboratories, it is still a challenge to manipulate microparticles when the environment is not well controlled and known a priori, since optical imperfections and scattering limit the applicability of this technique to real-life situations, such as in biomedical or microfluidic applications. Nonetheless, scattering of coherent light by disordered structures gives rise to speckles, random diffraction patterns with well- defined statistical properties. Here, we experimentally demonstrate how speckle fields can become a versatile tool to efficiently perform fundamental optical manipulation tasks such as trapping, guiding and sorting. We anticipate that the simplicity of these “speckle optical tweezers” will greatly broaden the perspectives of optical manipulation for real-life applications.

Reply to Comment on Circular Microswimmers published in Phys. Rev. Lett.

Reply to comment on “Circular motion of asymmetric self-propelling particles”

Reply to comment on “Circular motion of asymmetric self-propelling particles”
Felix Kümmel, Borge ten Hagen, Raphael Wittkowski, Daisuke Takagi, Ivo Buttinoni, Ralf Eichhorn, Giovanni Volpe, Hartmut Löwen & Clemens Bechinger
Physical Review Letters 113(2), 029802 (2014)
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.029802
arXiv: 1407.4016

See also “Circular motion of asymmetric self-propelling particles”, Physical Review Letters 113(2), 029802 (2014)

Simulation of Active Brownian Motion published in Am. J. Phys.

Simulation of the active Brownian motion of a microswimmer

Simulation of the active Brownian motion of a microswimmer
Giorgio Volpe, Sylvain Gigan & Giovanni Volpe
American Journal of Physics 82(7), 659—664 (2014)
DOI: 10.1119/1.4870398

Unlike passive Brownian particles, active Brownian particles, also known as microswimmers, propel themselves with directed motion and thus drive themselves out of equilibrium. Understanding their motion can provide insight into out-of-equilibrium phenomena associated with biological examples such as bacteria, as well as with artificial microswimmers. We discuss how to mathematically model their motion using a set of stochastic differential equations and how to numerically simulate it using the corresponding set of finite difference equations both in homogenous and complex environments. In particular, we show how active Brownian particles do not follow the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution—a clear signature of their out-of-equilibrium nature—and how, unlike passive Brownian particles, microswimmers can be funneled, trapped, and sorted.