Optical Trapping and Manipulation of Atoms and Particles

Optical interactions with matter involve energy exchange and momentum exchange. The momentum aspect gives rise to strong optical forces that can be used to manipulate and control the positions and velocities of atoms and particles. I will review the basic physics of this field and our work on laser cooling and trapping of rubidium atoms. I will then discuss our new effort to trap particles using a strongly focused laser beam in an optical tweezers trap. Work to date has concentrated on micron sized particles, but we are working towards trapping smaller nanoparticles. New experiments and potential applications will be discussed.