Design and construction of optical tweezers : single-molecule study of DNA mechanical properties.

• Main Author: Lim, Ci Ji.
• Other Authors: Phan Anh Tuan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Biophysics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/20697
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Optical tweezer is an integral tool in the research frontiers of science and engineering. In this FYP, a dual beam optical tweezers with single molecule detection capability is designed and constructed. The process of design and construction is discussed in this thesis. The constructed optical tweezer has a laser power throughput of 66% and maximum optical trapping force of 50 pN. Fundamental experiments were done to demonstrate the optical tweezer applicability. 3 um polystyrene beads coated with fluorescent-tagged complementary ssDNA were optically manipulated to form stable heterogenous pair. Preliminary optical pulling of a 1 um dsDNA tether was also done using the constructed optical tweezers.