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Study of microbubbles by Optical tweezers (OT) (CAT#: STEM-MB-1330-WXH)

Introduction

Microbubbles are small, gas-filled bubbles, typically between 0.5µm and 10µm in diameter, that are widely used as contrast agents in medical imaging and as carriers for targeted drug delivery.
The core of the microbubble is a gas, which is surrounded by a shell that may be composed of polymers, lipids, lipopolymers, proteins, surfactants or a combination of these.
Microbubbles are usually injected intravenously, a process that researchers have shown is safe compared to the use of conventional contrast agents in techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and radiography.




Principle

Optical tweezers (originally called single-beam gradient force trap) are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner similar to tweezers. If the object is held in air or vacuum without additional support, it can be called optical levitation.
The laser light provides an attractive or repulsive force (typically on the order of piconewtons), depending on the relative refractive index between particle and surrounding medium. Levitation is possible if the force of the light counters the force of gravity. The trapped particles are usually micron-sized, or even smaller. Dielectric and absorbing particles can be trapped, too.

Applications

• Optical tweezers are used in biology and medicine (for example to grab and hold a single bacterium, a cell like a sperm cell or a blood cell, or a molecule like DNA).
• Nanoengineering and nanochemistry (to study and build materials from single molecules).
• Quantum optics and quantum optomechanics (to study the interaction of single particles with light).

Procedure

1.Sample preparation
2.Force Calibration
3.Measurement
4.Analysis

Materials

Optical tweezers
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