Using Coherent Photons to Hunt Viruses and Predict Particle Uptake

Oscillations on very small scales can result in completely different oscillation behaviors on large scales. Examples are coupled molecules forming larger structures, or steel beams forming skyscrapers, or, single photons forming coupled wave fields from partial- ly coherent laser illumination.

In this talk I discuss how such interference phenomena can make 100 nm small viruses visible, which diffuse with tremendous speeds around lung cells to find docking sites. Using the ROCS principle I explain how to concert incoming photons and amplified scat- tered photons EiEs generated by virus-like particles f(r,t,) in such a way that their spa- tio-temporal correlations (coherence) provide high-speed, super-resolution images of virus-infection mechanisms.

Furthermore, I elucidate how the coupling between bacteria-like particles and simplified model cells are investigated by controlling distance and contact with laser traps and MHz interferometric particle tracking from amplified scattered light EiEs. I show how different cell membrane oscillation modes are changing the thermal position fluctuations of the optically trapped particle f(r,t,) during wrapping and uptake into the membrane. The damping of fluctuation modes predicts the energy costs for particle uptake, which can lead to bacterial infections.