Optical microscopes and tweezers can image and manipulate objects at the microscale for applications in cellular and molecular biology. The optical resolution is, however, hampered by the diffraction limit and therefore both microscopes and tweezers are unable to image and manipulate nano-objects directly. Emerging techniques in plasmonic/photonic nanoscopes and nanotweezers aim to achieve nanometer-scale resolution, although high-index material structures can easily cause mechanical and photothermal damage to the nanoscale biospecimens.
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Source: Phys.org