Accurate Estimation of Refractive Indices of Organic Microparticles in Dual-Beam Optical Trap.

The Refractive Index (RI) is an important parameter of characterizing optical properties of particles. In a dual-beam optical trap, two counter-propagating laser beams are used to trap micro-particles suspended in an aqueous medium. When a ray of light passes from one medium of lower RI (e.g. aqueous suspension medium) to another medium of higher RI (e.g. suspended particle), its momentum changes which exerts a proportional trapping force on the surface of the particle. Thus, accurate knowledge of RI of the particles and the surrounding medium is needed to determine the behavior of particles in an optical trap. The RI of micro-sized beads can be experimentally measured using traditional optical methods such as absorption microscopy. We developed an alternative theoretical method to estimate the RI of trapped particles based on non-contact optical trapping experimental outcomes. In our study, a theoretical model was formulated based on the experimentally measured minimum trapping powers for polystyrene and polyethylene beads using a dual-beam optical setup. The tendencies of trapping power-RI curves predicted by our model agreed very well with those measured experimentally. Our technique provides an alternative approach to determining the RI of a certain micro-size particle regardless of its size or density. Our method is especially advantageous over traditional methods to determine RI of biological particles which exhibit significant variations based on physiological and environmental conditions.