Trapping of Atoms and Biological Particles in the 1980–1990 Decade

The following sections are included:

• Optical Trapping and Cooling of Neutral Atoms in the Decade 1980–1990

  • Slowing of atomic beams by the scattering force

  • Scattering force traps and the optical Earnshaw theorem

  • Arrival of Steve Chu at the Holmdel Laboratory

  • Planning for the first atom trapping experiment

  • Stable alternating beam scattering force atom traps

  • First demonstration of optical molasses and early work on an optical trap

  • Cooling below the Doppler limit of molasses and below the recoil limit

  • Evaporative cooling from optical dipole traps

  • First atom trapping experiment using the single-beam dipole trap

  • Proposal for stable spontaneous force light traps

  • Nature's comments on the first atom trapping experiment

  • The first experimental demonstration of a MOT

  • Radiation trapping in MOTs

  • Atom cooling below the Doppler limit

• Trapping of Biological Particles

  • Artificial nonlinear media

  • Trapping of submicrometer Rayleigh particles

  • Tweezer trapping of micrometer-sized dielectric spheres

  • Optical trapping and manipulation of viruses and bacteria

  • Optical alignment of tobacco mosaic viruses

  • Fixed particle arrays of tobacco mosaic viruses

  • Tweezer trapping of bacteria and “opticution”

  • Tweezer trapping of bacteria in a high-resolution microscope

  • Optical tweezers using infrared light from a Nd:YAG laser

    • Damage-free trapping of living cells

    • Internal cell trapping and manipulation

    • Separation of bacteria using tweezers

    • Elastic properties of the cytoplasm