Optical tweezers have found many applications in the Sciences. The miniscule forces that light exerts on micron-size particles have empowered scientists, particularly those in biomedicine, enabling them to perform important studies on single molecules, cells and colloids without inflicting damage.
The harnessing of these light forces, known as optical tweezing, has for many years been dabbled in by only a brave few. That's mainly because the technique is difficult and multi-faceted, involving lasers, microscopes, imaging systems, specialized software and complex opto-mechanical design.
Indeed, many a student has cut their PhD by designing and building an optical tweezer to spend their post-doc time undertaking meaningful experimentation. The design, integration and testing process for a useful calibrated system typically requires one to two years — a threshold too high for many researchers.
Elliot Scientific decided to manufacture complete systems that would work straight from the box. We deliver a fully integrated working system allowing the user to start their research from day one.
We started with a pre-aligned, self-contained, fully interlocked portable workstation for single beam trapping that could be set up in minutes and carried from room to room to demonstrate technique - the E3100. We then designed a small-footprint single spot tweezer assembly that would bolt directly onto almost any commercial microscope (E3300). This made it possible to add optical tweezing just as one might add an epi-fluorescence or Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence attachment to an existing microscope.
We progressed to include manipulation of multiple traps (E3500) and, to measure trapping force, we developed our QPD Force Measurement systems (E4100) to satisfy requests from many researchers.
We now have a range of add-on optical tweezers that can be fitted to existing microscopes or we can supply a complete package including microscope.
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