Is it possible to enlarge the trapping range of optical tweezers via a single beam?

For optical tweezers, a tiny focal spot of the trapping beam is necessary for providing sufficient intensity-gradient force. This condition results in a limited small trapping range to guarantee stable trapping of the particle. Exploiting structured light, i.e., an optical vortex beam, the trapping range can be enlarged by adjusting its doughnut ring diameter. However, the trapped particle scarcely remains static due to the optical spanner action of the orbital angular momentum of the vortex beam. To enlarge the trapping range and simultaneously ensure stable trapping, we propose a beam, referred to as a mirror-symmetric optical vortex beam (MOV). Essentially, MOV is constructed by using two opposite optical spanners and a pair of static optical tweezers. The optical spanners attract the particle to the site of the static optical tweezers, which realizes long-range optical trapping. Through detailed force-field analysis, it is found that MOV could perform these setting functions. In experiments, yeast cells are manipulated in a long range of similar to 25 mu m, which is 3 times longer than that of the Gaussian beam. Further, the trapping range is easily adjusted by changing a parameter as desired. This technique provides versatile optical tweezers, which will facilitate potential applications for particle manipulation. Published under license by AIP Publishing.