Technique for rapid mass determination of airborne micro-particles based on release and recapture from an optical dipole force trap

We describe a method for the rapid determination of the mass of particles confined in a free-space optical dipole force trap. The technique relies on direct imaging of drop-and-restore experiments without the need for a vacuum environment. In these experiments, the trapping light is rapidly shuttered with an acousto-optic modulator, causing the particle to be released from and subsequently recaptured by the trapping force. The trajectories of both the falls and restorations, imaged using a high-speed CMOS sensor, are combined to determine the particle mass. We corroborate these measurements using an analysis of position autocorrelation functions and the mean-square displacement of the trapped particles. We report a statistical uncertainty of less than 2% for masses on the order of 5 x 10(-14) kg using a data acquisition time of approximately 90 s.