UCL Optical Tweezers Group

We have a PhD studentship for a project on Optical Skyrmions available to start in October 2026 (deadline for applications 05 Jan 26).  Contact Phil to find out more about the project and the application process.

Welcome to our new project students for 2025-26: Zhaoyang Li, Isaac Dennis, Ashton Elder and Ellen Tong

Optical trapping and manipulation of nanostructures Nat. Nanotech. 8 807-819 (2013) reaches 900 citations (Scopus)

Our paper Optical tweezers and their applications, J Quant Spectr Rad Transf 218 131-150 (2018) reaches 100 citations (Scopus)

Two PhD studentships available for start in September 2025: One on optical trapping of nanomaterials with Prof Chris Howard, one on using optical tweezers to probe mechanics of the basal membrane with Prof Franck Pichaud. Deadline for applications is 31 Jan 25. Contact Phil for details and informal enquiries.

The book of the 2023 Darwin Lectures "Isolation" is now available as Open Access

The QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics is open for consultation

Our paper M. Rashid et al, Focusing of high order cylindrical vector beams reaches 100 citations (Scopus)

Rotation projects and PhD project available for Optical Biology CDT students to measure mechanical forces in the basement membrane, co-supervised with Franck Pichaud

Welcome to Roshan Mehta and Isaac Dennis who have joined the group for projects this year

Paper 'Patchy landscapes promote stability of small groups' published as G. Jacucci et al, Communications Physics 7 245 (2024)

Optical trapping and manipulation of nanostructures Nat. Nanotech. 8 807-819 (2013) reaches 800 citations (Scopus)

The Feature Issue of Biomedical Optics Express presenting papers from the Optical Manipulation and its Applications conference (2023) is now published

PhD project on Optical trapping and spectroscopy of 2D nanomaterials, jointly supervised with Prof Chris Howard available for October 2024 start.  See this page for application instructions. Deadline for applications is 08 Jan 24.

Preprint on arXiv: G. Jacucci et al, 'Patchy landscapes promote stability of small groups'

Our paper on improving trap force calculations for red blood cells is published as R. Tognato et al, Biomedical Optics Express 14(7) 3748-3762 (2023)

Preprint on bioRxiv: R. Tognato et al, 'Modelling red blood cell optical trapping by machine learning improved geometrical optics calculations'

The Roadmap for Optical Tweezers is published online in J Phys Photonics

Phil will be giving a talk as part of the 2023 Darwin Lectures series at Darwin College, Cambridge on 17 Feb 23. This year's theme is Isolation

Prof Donna Strickland (2018 Physics Nobel Laureate) will be visiting UCL to give a talk on Generating High-intensity, Ultra-Short Optical Pulses, 01 Feb 23

PhD project on Optical trapping and spectroscopy of 2D nanomaterials, jointly supervised with Prof Chris Howard available.  See this page for how to apply, deadline is 25 Jan.

Feature Issue of Biomedical Optics Express in conjunction with the Optica Optical Manipulation and Its Applications (OMA) Meeting announced.  Submissions open 01 Apr 23

Our paper Ray optics model for optical trapping of biconcave red blood cells has been published as R Tognato & P H Jones, Micromachines 14 83 (2023)

Our paper Optical tweezers and their applications, J Quant Spectr Rad Transf 218 131-150 (2018) reaches 100 citations (Scopus)

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