Radiation pressure exerted by light was a lifelong passion for Arthur Ashkin. He foresaw that light pressure could do useful work and invented the optical tweezers that can trap microscopic objects, from small ‘living things’ down to individual atoms.
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References
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Acknowledgements
Many people contributed to this obituary. I would like to thank his wife Aline, his daughter, Judith Herscu, and sons, Michael and Daniel. Many thanks to R. Stolen, J. Bjorkholm, E. Ippen, G. Bjorklund and S. Harris who kindly provided feedback on the manuscript.
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Essiambre, RJ. In memory of Arthur Ashkin. Nat. Photonics 15, 167–168 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00768-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00768-0
