Angular Trapping of Spherical Janus Particles

Developing angular trapping methods, which will enable optical tweezers to rotate a micronized bead, is of great importance for the studies of biomacromolecules during a wide range of torque-generation processes. Here we report a novel controlled angular trapping method based on composite Janus particles. We used a chemically synthesized Janus particle, which consists of two hemispheres made of polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) respectively, as a model system to demonstrate this method. Through computational and experimental studies, we demonstrated the feasibility to control the rotation of a Janus particle in a linearly polarized laser trap. Our results showed that the Janus particle aligned its two hemispheres interface parallel to the laser propagation direction as well as the laser polarization direction. In our experiments, the rotational state of the particle can be easily and directly visualized by using a CMOS camera, and does not require complex optical detection system. The rotation of the Janus particle in the laser trap can be fully controlled in real time by controlling the laser polarization direction. Our newly developed angular trapping technique has the great advantage of easy implementation and real time controllability. Considering the easy chemical synthesis of Janus particles and implementation of the angular trapping, this novel method has the potential of becoming a general angular trapping method. We anticipate that this new method will significantly broaden the availability of angular trapping in the biophysics community, and expand the scope of the research that can be enabled by the angular trapping approach.