Combined dielectrophoretic field cages and laser tweezers for electrorotation

Symmetric rotating octode field cages do not allow simultaneous particle trapping and electrorotation. Laser-trapped particles can stably be held in inhomogeneous rotating electric fields. Therefore, in a combination of laser tweezers and field-cage (electro-optical cage) dielectric single-particle spectroscopy (DSPS) of particles and cells can be carried out at low electric field strength. The electro-optical cage overcomes the limitation of low enough effective particle conductivity ensuring repelling dielectrophoretic forces in conventional field cages. At low power, forces in field cages and laser tweezers hardly interfere and can be used to calibrate each other.