title: Axial potential mapping of optical tweezers for biopolymer stretching: the bead size matters.
abstract: Optical tweezers (OT) are widely used for pico (and femto)-Newton range force measurements. The appropriate choice of the bead size is not well understood for biopolymer stretching applications of OT. We have shown, both by theory and experiment, that wrong choice of the bead size could cause errors as large as 295% in the measured force. We provide a simple map for correct choice of the bead size and the direction of pulling for such applications. There is a good agreement between our theoretical and experimental results.
authors: Department of Physics, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
authors: Arash
authors: A
authors: Ahmadi
authors: S Nader S
authors: SN
authors: Reihani
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008863:Microspheres; D052898:Optical Tweezers; D010316:Particle Size; D018583:Pliability
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers