The majority of optical tweezers make use of conventional TEM Gaussian beams. However a number of other beam types have been used to trap particles, including high order laser beams i.e. Hermite-Gaussian beams (TEM), Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams (TEM) and Bessel beams.
Optical tweezers based on Laguerre-Gaussian beams have the unique capability of trapping particles that are optically reflective and absorptive. Laguerre-Gaussian beams also possess a well-defined orbital angular momentum that can rotate particles. This is accomplished without external mechanical or electrical steering of the beam.
Both zero and higher order Bessel Beams also possess a unique tweezing ability. They can trap and rotate multiple particles that are millimeters apart and even around obstacles.
Micromachines can be driven by these unique optical beams due to their intrinsic rotating mechanism due to the spin and orbital angular momentum of light.