This article is cited in 10 papers

Special issue on laser biophotonics

Red blood cell in the field of a beam of optical tweezers

P. B. Ermolinskiy^a, A. E. Lugovtsov^a, A. N. Semenov^b, A. V. Priezzhev<sup>a

a</sup> Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University
^b Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Biology

Abstract: We consider the effect of a tightly focused laser beam with a wavelength of 1064 nm and a power from 10 to 160 mW on red blood cells during their optical trapping with optical tweezers. It is found that the shape of a red blood cell, which alters after optical trapping, ceases to change when the trapping duration is less than 5 min and the laser beam power is less than 60 mW. At a beam power above 80 mW, the red blood cell begins to fold at a trapping duration of about 1 min, and at powers above 100–150 mW, the red blood cell membrane ruptures in 1–3 min after optical trapping. It is also found that with repeated short-term capture of a red blood cell in an optical trap, the deformation properties of the membrane change: it becomes more rigid. The obtained results are important both for understanding the mechanisms of interaction of a laser beam with red blood cells and for optimising the technique of optical experiments, especially for measuring the deformation properties of a membrane using optical tweezers.

Keywords: red blood cell, optical tweezers, optical trapping, Nd : YAG.

Received: 02.10.2021

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 2022, 52:1, 22–27

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