Robotics goes micro-scale

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The shaping of micro-scale objects enables fine control over their mechanical interactions with light, providing a new avenue towards light driven micro-machines. This image shows a schematic of an optically trapped probe with specially shaped conical handles and a sharp tip for imaging surface features. Illustration by David Phillips.       The development of light-driven ‘micro-robots’ that can autonomously investigate and manipulate the nano-scale environment in a microscope comes a step closer, thanks to new research from the University of Bristol. Such devices could be used for high-resolution imaging, allowing the investigation of delicate biological samples such as cells in new ways. Dr David Phillips, Professor Mervyn Miles and Dr Stephen Simpson of Bristol’s School of Physics, and colleagues, aim to develop such micro-robots and control them using a technology known as ‘optical tweezers’.  In a paper published today in Nature Photonics, they investigate how optical tweezers can be used to manipulate nanofabricated structures to generate high-resolution images. Optical tweezers use light to move microscopic objects such as individual cells or particles 1,000 times smaller than the width of human hair. When light reflects from a surface, or bends as it travels into a transparent material, it exerts a force

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