Light cages and light traps
Two publications of Münster University in "Optics and Photonics News"
Münster (upm), Mo, 03 Dez 2012
The cover of the special pages in Optics and Photonics News shows an artists impression of Münsters work in optical manipulation of absorbing matter.
The prestigious journal "Optics and Photonics News" has included in its list of the 30 most exciting peer-reviewed optics research two publications by the group of Prof. Cornelia Denz. Traditionally, the magazine's last issue of the year recalls research highlights in the fields of optics and photonics in the past 12 months. Already in the last two years, several studies published by scientists from the Nonlinear Photonics group at Münster University were included in the list of the most important pieces of research work done.
"In its December issue, 'Optics and Photonics News' recognizes innovative publications which have aroused particular interest worldwide among experts in the field," says Cornelia Denz. "This makes it a great honour for my group to be represented with two papers."
In the first outstanding publication Christina Alpmann, Michael Esseling and Patrick Rose have shown how to use the superposition of light beams to produce light cages. These cages are able to trap light-absorbing micro and nano particles in the dark regions of their donut-like shape. Using this technique, the researchers succeeded to simultaneously move several light-absorbing micro particles in air. This is the prerequisite for the generation of artificial structures of nano particles.
In the second publication in cooperation with the team of Prof. Luisa De Cola, Strasbourg, nano-containers were arranged in sophisticated structures by Manoel Veiga-Gutierrez and Mike Woerdemann in an optical assembly line. The term nano-containers refers to host guest materials that offer the possibility to be filled with different drugs or messenger substances. With optical tweezers these nano-containers are trapped in a lab-on-a-chip assembly line and adhered to surfaces. Afterwards, the researchers could show that the resulting structures are sensitive to certain light properties so that they can be used as micro sensors.
References:
Dynamic Light Cages: Putting Absorbing Matter Behind Bars (original publication: Holographic optical bottle beams, C. Alpmann, M. Esseling, P. Rose, C. Denz, Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 2012, 111101)
Creating Functional Microstructures with an Optical-Tweezers Assembly-Line (original publication: Optical-Tweezers Assembly-Line for the Construction of Complex Functional Zeolite L Structures, M. Veiga-Gutiérrez, M. Woerdemann, E. Prasetyanto, C. Denz, L. De Cola, Adv. Mater. 24, 2012, 5199–5204)
Original publications December issue of Optics and Photonics News
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