Since the advent of commercially available optical tweezer systems, these instruments have become an essential experimental technique in physics, biology, medicine, nanoengineering, and emerging quantum technologies.
Aresis turn-key optical tweezer systems particularly versatile and universally adaptable to meet customer requirements. This state-of-the-art instrument can simultaneously generate multiple traps and individually manipulate several hundred objects with nanometer precision and piconewton sensitivity, while built-in video tracking and QPD enable visualization and precise optical detection.
Aresis optical tweezers are fully compatible with conventional techniques such as fluorescence imaging, TIRF, Raman spectroscopy, and confocal microscopy, making them suitable for a wide range of applications, from studying living cells to single molecules and individual atoms.
Soft Matter Physics
Colloids, liquid crystals, active matter, extracellular matrix, micelles, flexible polymers – all examples of soft matter that can be investigated, manipulated, and evaluated by optical tweezers. With the nanometre-precision, simultaneous positioning of several hundreds of optical traps, and a high degree of automatisation, the Aresis optical tweezers system is ideal for probing viscoelastic properties of materials, studying inter-particle interactions, measuring piconewton forces acting on particles, and exploring phenomena like phase transitions, aggregation, assembly mechanisms, and colloidal statistical mechanics.
Cell Mechanics
Whether you explore cell motility, adhesion, division, or response to mechanical stimuli, Aresis optical tweezers with their ultra-precise control over the trap position and the applied external force are an ideal tool for your research. They offer both force application and force sensing, allowing you to investigate the mechanical properties of cell membranes, cytoskeletons, cytoplasm, individual organelles, or specific membane proteins by using functionalised probe microparticles. Aresis tweezers allow for measuring the mechanical and viscoelastic properties of live cells suspended in fluids, enabling you to study the cells in their native environment under physiological conditions.
Microrheology
The Aresis optical tweezers system offers exceptional stability, high spatial and temporal resolution, and advanced image acquisition, making it ideal for both passive and active microrheology. It allows precise measurements of local material response using either a single oscillating microparticle or multiple probe microparticles. Both methods can be applied in a wide range of samples, including biological cells, polymers, colloids, and other complex soft materials. Aresis tweezers are equipped with an integrated direct video capture or quadrant photodiode (QPD) particle tracking system, enabling simultaneous sample observation and particle manipulation.
Single Molecule Biophysics
Measuring forces between individual biomolecules, controlled folding and unfolding of proteins, load-bearing kinetics of molecular motors, and stretching and twisting of DNA are just a few examples of how Aresis optical tweezers can be applied to single molecule studies. Fully automatic force calibration ensures reliable and reproducible force measurements while the versatile Aresis setup enables compatibility with other optical techniques, such as fluorescence microscopy and total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF), to provide complementary information about molecular interactions and dynamics in the piconewton force range.
Aerosol Physics
Built-in functionality for particle tracking and system compatibility with controlled containment chambers make Aresis optical tweezers indispensable for aerosol studies. Various processes, such as aggregation and coagulation, can be observed and investigated in biological aerosols (e.g. pollen or viruses) and industrial particles (e.g. pollutants or soot). Multiple traps enable the trapping of individual particles and the measurement of interparticle forces in highly controlled conditions. Incorporation of Raman or fluorescence spectrometers into the Aresis tweezers system enables individual analysis and characterisation of the trapped particles.
Cold Atoms
Flexibility and versatility in design make the Aresis optical system an excellent tool for investigating quantum phenomena in ultra-cold atoms. Precise positioning and manipulation of individual atoms or small ensembles of atoms are possible in various multiple-trap geometries and custom trapping potentials, creating specific spatial arrangements, such as optical lattices or arrays for quantum simulators. Advanced hardware synchronisation and automatisation of the Aresis setup enable quick integration into new or existing systems for cold atoms or Bose-Einstein condensates.