Spatiotemporal control of energy transfer in optically trapped systems

We demonstrate control over two photon fluorescence (TPF) resonance energy transfer under femtosecond optically tweezed condition. We also extract information about the structure and dynamics of the trapped particles and their clusters as observed from the TPF decay times of the trapped multiple microspheres (0.50 μm size) by varying the polarization of the trapping laser. This micron to nano regime of the energy transfer process has provided us the necessary control over the molecular level energy transfer rate due to the different overlap integral of excitation and emission spectra of the dye that is coated on the surface of 1.0 μm polystyrene particles. Our background free detection method thus provides additional structural information about multiple trapping events.