US Patent Issued to The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army on April 15 for "Optical trap using a focused hollow beam of unequal axisymmetry and no angular momentum for trapping and rotating airborne particles" (Maryland Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,276,593, issued on April 15, was assigned to The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army (Washington).

"Optical trap using a focused hollow beam of unequal axisymmetry and no angular momentum for trapping and rotating airborne particles" was invented by Jessica A. Arnold (Chevy Chase, Md.), Aimable Kalume (Adelphi, Md.), Yongle Pan (Ellicott City, Md.) and Gorden Videen (Silver Spring, Md.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems and methods for trapping and holding airborne particles using an orienting hollow beam are disclosed. In the various embodiments, an optical trap comprises: a light source for generatin...