The single particle tracking system

Abstract

In an optical tweezers system, the force measurement with a resolution less than pico-Newton can be achieved by precise measurement and analysis of the trapped particle trajectory. Typically, this single particle tracking technique is realized by a quadrant position sensor which detects the scattering lights of the trapping laser beam from the trapped particle. However, as the radius of the trapped particle is larger than the wavelength of the trapped laser, the scattering pattern becomes complicated, and it limits the tracking region and the signal sensitivity on the trapped particle. To solve this issue, an extra probing laser with optimized focal offset according to the trapping laser is applied to improve the flexibility and performance of our particle tracking system for each particle size. A rule of thumb between the optimized focal offsets and particle size is also concluded from the experimental results and theoretical simulations.