Project level: PhD

While optical tweezers are typically used to trap or move microscopic particles or measure piconewton forces they can also be used to measure the mechanical properties of soft particles that can be deformed by the optical forces acting on them. One example is the so-called optical stretcher but similar effects can be obtained with single beam optical traps.

The goal of this project will be to computationally simulate the deformation of soft particles in optical traps which can allow the mechanical properties of particles to be determined from observations of their behaviour in optical traps.

Project members

Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop

Professor
School of Mathematics and Physics