Optical tweezers have found widespread application in many fields, from
physics to biology. Here, we explain in detail how optical forces and torques
can be described within the geometrical optics approximation and we show that
this approximation provides reliable results in agreement with experiments for
particles whose characteristic dimensions are larger than the wavelength of the
trapping light. Furthermore, we provide an object-oriented software package
implemented in MatLab for the calculation of optical forces and torques in the
geometrical optics regime: \texttt{OTGO - Optical Tweezers in Geometrical
Optics}. We provide all source codes for \texttt{OTGO} as well as the
documentation and code examples -- e.g., standard optical tweezers, optical
tweezers with elongated particle, windmill effect, Kramers transitions between
two optical traps -- necessary to enable users to effectively employ it in
their research and teaching.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Optical tweezers have found widespread application in many fields, from physics to biology. Here, we explain in detail how optical forces and torques can be described within the geometrical optics approximation and we show that this approximation provides reliable results in agreement with experiments for particles whose characteristic dimensions are larger than the wavelength of the trapping light. Furthermore, we provide an object-oriented software package implemented in MatLab for the calculation of optical forces and torques in the geometrical optics regime: OTGOOptical Tweezers in Geometrical Optics. We provide all source codes for OTGO as well as the documentation and code examples -e.g., standard optical tweezers, optical tweezers with elongated particle, windmill effect, Kramers transitions between two optical traps -necessary to enable users to effectively employ it in their research and teaching.
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