Description:

The idea of using light to manipulate individual particles is well known: optical traps are a widely used tool in biology and physics.  Far less well known is that light can also create inter-particle forces when two or more objects are placed in an intense, unfocussed light field.  This force -- known as optical binding -- has an unusual form and is highly tunable, making it an interesting candidate for studies in self-assembly.  I will describe our efforts to create an experimental platform to study the behavior of many optically bound colloids.  These experiments revealed an unexpected feature of optical binding forces: many body effects can produce significant non-conservative forces which drive the system out of equilibrium.  Finally, I will also describe our preliminary efforts to generate similar forces using sound instead of light.

Speaker: Dustin Kleckner, Assistant Professor of Physics, University of California Merced

Host: Professor Michelle Driscoll