Comparison To Other Techniques
This section compares the features of magnetic tweezers with those of the most important other single-molecule experimental methods: optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy. The magnetic interaction is highly specific to the used superparamagnetic microbeads. The magnetic field does practically not affect the sample. Optical tweezers have the problem that the laser beam may also interact with other particles of the biological sample due to contrasts in the refractive index. In addition to that, the laser may cause photodamage and sample heating. In the case of atomic force microscopy, it may also be hard to discriminate the interaction of the tip with the studied molecule from other nonspecific interactions.
Thanks to the low trap stiffness, the range of forces accessible with magnetic tweezers is lower in comparison with the two other techniques. The possibility to exert torque with magnetic tweezers is not unique: optically tweezers may also offer this feature when operated with birefringent microbeads in combination with a circularly polarized laser beam.
Another advantage of magnetic tweezers is that it is easy to carry out in parallel many single molecule measurements.
An important drawback of magnetic tweezers is the low temporal and spatial resolution due to the data acquisition via video-microscopy.
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