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Updated: Aug 24, 2025

Direct Force Measurements of Subcellular Mechanics in Confinement using Optical Tweezers
Published on: August 31, 2021
Colloidal transport in twisted lattices of optical tweezers
Nico C X Stuhlmüller1, Thomas M Fischer2, Daniel de Las Heras1
1Theoretische Physik II, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Abstract:
We simulate the transport of colloidal particles driven by a static and homogeneous drift force, and subject to the optical potential created by two lattices of optical tweezers. The lattices of optical tweezers are parallel to each other, shifted, and rotated by a twist angle. Due to a negative interference between the potential of the two lattices, flat channels appear in the total optical potential. At specific twist angles, known as magic angles, the flat channels percolate the entire system and the colloidal particles can then be transported using a weak external drift force. We characterize the transport in both square and hexagonal lattices of twisted optical tweezers.

