Introduction¶
Welcome to the documentation for the Optical Tweezers Toolbox (OTT). This section provides a brief overview of the toolbox. Subsequent sections will guide you through installing the toolbox, and running the basic examples. The Reference section is automatically generated from the toolbox source code and provides a list of all the major toolbox functions and usage. The final section provide additional reference material for toolbox concepts.
Contents
About¶
The Optical Tweezers Toolbox is a collection of methods for modelling optically trapped particles. The toolbox includes methods for modelling tightly focussed laser beams, optical scattering, fluidic drag, and dynamics of optically trapped particles. The toolbox can be used to calculate the optical forces and torques acting on spherical and non-spherical particles in a laser beam. In addition, the toolbox includes methods for calculating fluidic drag and Brownian forces, as well as examples for basic dynamics simulations.
This is the second major release of the optical tweezers toolbox. Since version 1, the toolbox has been substantially re-written in order to focus on describing beams and particles instead of specific numerical methods. This version of the toolbox implements a more modular design using modules and objects. The new modular design is intended to make it easier to integrate other optical force calculation methods such as geometric optics and the discrete dipole approximation in a upcoming release. The other major change from version 1 is the inclusion of methods for calculating non-optical forces and simulating the dynamics of particles.
Previous releases can be downloaded from the OTT GitHub page.
Dependencies¶
The toolbox should be compatible with Matlab 2018a or newer. Previous versions of the toolbox were compatible with GNU Octave, however the current version does not appear to be compatible in our most recent test.
Licence¶
Except where otherwise noted, this toolbox is made available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.
For full details see the file LICENSE.md.
For use outside the conditions of the license, please contact us.
The toolbox includes some third-party components, information about
these components can be found in the documentation and corresponding
file in the thirdparty directory.
If you use the toolbox in academic work, please cite it as follows
Todo
Add how to cite, and in README too
or using the following bibtex entry
Todo
Add how to cite, and in README too
Contributing¶
If you would like to contribute a feature, report a bug or request we add something to the toolbox, the easiest way is by creating a new issue on the OTT GitHub page.
If you have code you would like to submit, fork the repository, add the code and open a new issue. This method is preferable to pasting the code in the issue or sending it to us via email since your contribution details will remain attached to the commit you send (tracking authorship).
Contact us¶
The best person to contact for inquiries about the toolbox or licensing is Isaac Lenton.