Technique - (22) Optical tweezers / laser trapping

Type: Experimental

Description: Focused laser beam trapping for force measurement and biophysical manipulation.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Yan Lab @ UChicago
Summary:

Yan built the first quantum gas microscope for ultracold molecules and uses programmable tweezer arrays of fermionic atoms and dipolar molecules to realize custom quantum many-body Hamiltonians (Hubbard and spin models) with single-site resolution. This is primarily a quantum-simulation platform rather than a sensing one, so it is kept as an unpreferred/borderline entry; the same site-resolved tweezer/microscope toolkit underlies emerging proposals for distributed tweezer-array quantum sensors, which is the basis for inclusion.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics and Molecular & Cell Biology | Yildiz Lab @ UCB
Summary:

Yildiz uses nanometer-precision single-molecule fluorescence and optical/magnetic tweezers (FIONA-type localization) to resolve the stepping mechanisms of cytoskeletal motor proteins such as myosin, kinesin, and dynein in living cells.