Researchers demonstrated a new type of optical manipulation: using laser light to pull a macroscopic object. The technology has potential for applications in the continued explorations of Mars.

The quest for a real life tractor beam continues, with a 2-micrometer-thick silicon light bender. The silicon metasurface changes a solid beam into a triple spiral one that can pick up particles.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is driving exponential growth in data transmission, and cost-effective, ultrafast, and compact optical communication technologies are urgently needed to manage the ...

A breakthrough technology from scientists at MIT has made it possible to manipulate particles in what has been referred to as reminiscent of the tractor beam in Star Wars and Star Trek. The microchip ...

NASA scientists are studying a laser technique called optical trapping to see if it could be developed to produce “tractor beams” that would allow a spacecraft or lander to remotely capture particles ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a way to use laser light to pull a macroscopic object. Although microscopic optical tractor beams have been demonstrated before, this is one of the first times ...