Optical trapping of Magnetic Helical Bacteria

Heidrun Schmitzer1, M. Henstridge1, Dorothy Engle1, Wolfgang Dultz2, D. Tierney1
  1. 1Department of Physics, Xavier University (USA)
  2. 2Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

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We trapped micrometer sized helical, magnetic bacteria with optical tweezers. The linear momentum transfer from light onto the helical structure can make the bacteria magnetospirilla magnetotacticum rotate very quickly. The magnetosomes inside the bacterium are nanometer in size and can in principle be arranged into patterns of nanomagnets with multiple optical traps. We describe our first experiments with this type of bacterium in an optical trap and suggest some applications based on estimations of its magnetic dipole moment.

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@inproceedings{schmitzer2009p56,
  author     = {Schmitzer, Heidrun and Henstridge, M. and Engle, Dorothy and Dultz, Wolfgang and Tierney, D.},
  title      = {{Optical trapping of Magnetic Helical Bacteria}},
  booktitle  = {DGaO-Proceedings 2009},
  series     = {DGaO-Proceedings},
  eventtitle = {110. Jahrestagung der DGaO},
  eventdate  = {2009-06-02/2009-06-05},
  venue      = {Brescia},
  publisher  = {Deutsche Gesellschaft für angewandte Optik e.V.},
  year       = {2009},
  pages      = {P56},
  url        = {https://dgao-proceedings.de/paper/110-p56}
}
110. Jahrestagung der DGaO · Brescia · 2009