Tractor beam breakthrough could reduce biopsy trauma

The University of Melbourne team, part of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, describe their breakthrough in ACS Photonics.

Previous solenoid beams have been created by bulky special light modulators (SLMs), but the size and weight of these systems prevent the beams being used in handheld devices. 

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In a statement chief investigator Ken Crozier said: “This work opens new possibilities for using light to exert forces on tiny objects”

The team hopes the metasurface - a layer of nanopatterned silicon around 1/2000 of a millimetre thick - could eventually be used to non-invasively take biopsies.

Beams of light tend to exert a pushing force, moving particles away from the light source, but solenoid beams have been proven to draw particles toward the light source. 

This triple helix solenoid beam is claimed to have several benefits over previously generated solenoid beams: the required conditions of the input beam are more flexible than with previous beams, it does not require an SLM, and the size, weight and power requirements are significantly less than previous systems.