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Experimental demonstration of optical transport, sorting and self-arrangement using a 'tractor beam'

The article presents an experimental verification of an important, recently hypothesized physical phenomenon - negative optical force. Exchange of momentum between light and matter in most cases leads to the pushing force (light pushes tails of comets away from the sun). The possibility of reversing the force was identified in 2006 by P Marston, but the experimental realization was not available until this study. Due to other physical effect previously unseen and demonstration of practical application in optical fractionation the paper gained interest in many scientific and public media (Physics World, OPN, BBC news, Financial Times, and many others).