The three-dimensional trap stiffness of optical tweezers formed with high-NA micromirrors is investigated by back-focal-plane interferometry and power spectrum analysis. Normalized stiffness values of ${\kappa }_{xy}∕P_{\mathrm{trap}}=1.2(\mu \mathrm{N}∕\mathrm{m})∕\mathrm{mW}$ and ${\kappa }_z∕P_{\mathrm{trap}}=0.52(\mu \mathrm{N}∕\mathrm{m})∕\mathrm{mW}$ in the transverse and axial directions, respectively, have been measured for polystyrene spheres with a radius of $1.03\mu \mathrm{m}$ . Compared with high-NA microscope objectives, micromirrors achieve much better trapping performances, particularly in the axial direction.

© 2009 Optical Society of America

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