The quest for a real life tractor beam continues, with a 2-micrometer-thick silicon light bender. The silicon metasurface changes a solid beam into a triple spiral one that can pick up particles.

Tractor beams sound like science fiction straight out of “Star Trek,” but one U.K.-based researcher is showing off how you could make your own using a 3D printer. Short for “attractor” beams, the ...