Influence of experimental parameters on the laser heating of an optical trap

In optical tweezers, heating of the sample due to absorption of the laser light is a major concern as temperature plays an important role at microscopic scale. A popular rule of thumb is to consider that, at the typical wavelength of 1064 nm, the focused laser induces a heating rate of B = 1 degrees C/100 mW. We analysed this effect under different routine experimental conditions and found a remarkable variability in the temperature increase. Importantly, we determined that temperature can easily rise by as much as 4 degrees C at a relatively low power of 100 mW, for dielectric, non-absorbing particles with certain sets of specific, but common, parameters. Heating was determined from measurements of light momentum changes under drag forces at different powers, which proved to provide precise and robust results in watery buffers. We contrasted the experiments with computer simulations and obtained good agreement. These results suggest that this remarkable heating could be responsible for changes in the sample under study and could lead to serious damage of live specimens. It is therefore advisable to determine the temperature increase in each specific experiment and avoid the use of a universal rule that could inadvertently lead to critical changes in the sample.