Optical Trapping of Single Particles in Plasma for Plasma Diagnostics

The first demonstration of optical trapping (OT) was performed in the early 1970s by Arthur Ashkin. Later Steven Chu et al. applied this technique to achieve laser trapping and cooling atoms, and the work was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997. In 2018, Arthur Ashkin also received the Nobel Prize for his contribution to OT technology, arguably due to the increasingly recognized impact of OT in ever expanding diverse research fields: physics, chemistry, biology, materials, and atmospheric sciences. Over the last several decades, most optically trapped objects have been constrained in a liquid, which is desired in biology and life sciences where the OT is widely referred to as optical tweezers. Nowadays, OT broadly includes the optical tweezers and optically trapping single particles in air.