Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 21 March 1975:
Vol. 187. no. 4181, pp. 1073 - 1075
DOI: 10.1126/science.187.4181.1073
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Optical Levitation of Liquid Drops by Radiation Pressure

A. Ashkin 1 and J. M. Dziedzic 1

1 Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey 07733

Charged and neutral liquid drops in the diameter range from 1 to 40 microns can be stably levitated and manipulated with laser beams. The levitation technique has been extended toward smaller particles (about 1 micron), lower laser power (less than 1 milliwatt), and deeper traps (greater than ten times the particle's weight). The techniques developed here have particular importance in cloud physics, aerosol science, fluid dynamics, and optics. The interactions of the drops with light, the electric field, the surrounding gas, and one another can be observed with high precision.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Optical tweezers: 20 years on.
D. McGloin (2006)
Phil Trans R Soc A 364, 3521-3537
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Optical Matter: Crystallization and Binding in Intense Optical Fields.
M. M. Burns, J.-M. Fournier, and J. A. Golovchenko (1990)
Science 249, 749-754
   Abstract »    PDF »
Levitation in Physics.
E. H. BRANDT (1989)
Science 243, 349-355
   Abstract »    PDF »
Applications of Laser Radiation Pressure.
A. Ashkin (1980)
Science 210, 1081-1088
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)