{"id":18221,"date":"2014-06-09T08:17:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T08:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/research\/new-laser-beams-overcome-the-law-of-diffraction\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T16:16:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T10:46:38","slug":"new-laser-beams-overcome-the-law-of-diffraction","status":"publish","type":"research","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/new-laser-beams-overcome-the-law-of-diffraction","title":{"rendered":"New laser beams overcome the law of diffraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 1980s, researchers weren\u2019t successful in manipulating micron-sized objects with focused laser beams through \u201coptical tweezers\u201d due to the law of diffraction. This law limited the degree to which light can be focused, and most objects smaller than about 100 nanometers couldn\u2019t be trapped. The physicists at the Institute of Photonic Sciences, however, observed that the diffraction applies to propagate light waves, but on the nanoscale, noble metals such as gold can convert light into evanescent fields, which are non-propagating waves that quickly fade. They were able to focus light to manipulate particles as small as small as 50 nanometers. According to the physicists, this discovery could prove beneficial to scientists from many different fields.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Read more in Scientific American<\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33313,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"new_tags":[],"series":[],"subject":[2873],"class_list":["post-18221","research","type-research","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","subject-physics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew laser beams overcome the law of diffraction | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the 1980s, researchers weren\u2019t successful in manipulating micron-sized objects with focused laser beams through \u201coptical tweezers\u201d due to the law of diffraction. The physicists at the Institute of Photonic Sciences, however,\u00a0were able to focus light to manipulate particles as small as small as 50 nanometers. Read on to know more.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/new-laser-beams-overcome-the-law-of-diffraction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New laser beams overcome the law of diffraction | Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the 1980s, researchers weren\u2019t successful in manipulating micron-sized objects with focused laser beams through \u201coptical tweezers\u201d due to the law of diffraction. The physicists at the Institute of Photonic Sciences, however,\u00a0were able to focus light to manipulate particles as small as small as 50 nanometers. 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