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MIT engineers create a chip-based tractor beam for biological particles
A chip-based “tractor beam” can trap and manipulate biological particles using a tightly focused beam of light emitted from a silicon-photonics chip. The device could help biologists and clinicians study DNA, classify cells, and investigate the mechanisms of disease.
MIT researchers have developed a miniature, chip-based “tractor beam,” like the one that captures the Millennium Falconin the film “Star Wars,” that could someday help biologists and clinicians study DNA, classify cells, and investigate the mechanisms of disease. It’s exciting to think about the different applications that could be enabled by this technology,” says Jelena Notaros, the Robert J. Shillman Career Development Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. The MIT team discovered that, by creating specific phase patterns for each antenna, they could form an intensely focused beam of light, which can be used for optical trapping and tweezing millimeters from the chip’s surface.
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