ABSTRACT
Chapters 1 to 4 explored the physical basis of optical tweezers,
and Chapter 5 the many considerations involved in implementing
such a system. In this chapter, we will explore some of the
many uses to which optical tweezers have been put outside of
microrheology (Chapters 6 to 9) and touch on the history of the
technique’s development. Starting with investigations of optical
momentum, arguably the question that drove the development of
optical tweezers, we will consider physical phenomena such as
optical binding and hydrodynamic coupling. Biological experiments
account for some of the most high-profile results to have been
measured with optical tweezers, and this chapter will discuss a
sample of these, notably work relating to molecular motors and
synchronisation of swimming organisms. Wewill review progress in
the use of optical tweezers as a scanning probe technique, including
the use of optically actuated tools. Finally, developments in recent
years have led to trapping and cooling of micro-objects in vacuum;
this brings us rather neatly round to the science Arthur Ashkin was
working towards when he developed the technique in the 1980s.
