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Monika Ritsch-Marte - Comparing Optical and Acoustic Trapping for Biomedical Applications

Hybrid Lecture


Abstract:

Many biomedical investigations require to move, stretch or mechanically probe a biomedical sample by exerting controlled forces in a non-contact way. Thus optical and acoustic trapping of microscopic samples have found a multitude of applications in recent years. The differences in the physical laws and in the typical length scales governing acoustic and optical forces make them complementary. While acoustic forces can levitate large and therefore heavy particles, which optical tweezers could not handle without adverse high-power effects, optical forces cover subcellular scales. In this talk I will compare and contrast the two modalities, and identify situation where one or the other is favorable, or even a combination of both.

Biography:

Monika Ritsch-Marte received her M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Innsbruck in 1984 and her PhD in Quantum Optics from the Waikato University in New Zealand (under the supervision of D.F. Walls) in 1988. After several PostDoc projects (Boulder/Colorado, Milano, Helsinki), and after completing her Habilitation at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Innsbruck, she accepted the Chair of Biomedical Physics at the Medical University in Innsbruck in 1998 where she founded a Biomedical Optics group. Her current research interests include holographic optical tweezers, digital holographic microscopy and linear and non-linear Raman microscopy. She has received numerous research grants and awards, including an ERC Advanced Grant and the Boltzmann Award of the Austrian Physical Society. She is a member of the Austrian Academy of Science, the German Academy Leopoldina, and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.

 

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