Using optical tweezers to simultaneously trap, charge and measure the charge of a microparticle in air

Optical tweezers are widely used as a highly sensitive tool to measure forces on micron-scale particles. One such application is the measurement of the electric charge of a particle, which can be done with high precision in liquids, air, or vacuum. We experimentally investigate how the trapping laser itself can electrically charge such a particle, in our case a ~ 1\,μm\;SiO₂ sphere in air. We model the charging mechanism as a two-photon process which reproduces the experimental data with high fidelity.