There may be a way to levitate micron-thick materials near atmospheric pressure only using light. 

Our goal is to gather long term data from the mesosphere. The mesosphere is too thick for satellites to orbit in it, yet too thin for weather balloons to rise into. However, levitating materials utilizing photopheresis seems like a promising solution. 

My research consisted of testing three different types of thin, lightweight materials.

• The first material I looked into was a meta-material designed by the Bargatin Group previously called Nano-Cardboard. It is a corrugation basketweave of alumina tubes that was nanofabricated using the deposition and etching processes. The goal was to see if a sample could be designed to levitate in midair.
• The second material I looked at was Dandelion Pappi. The goal was to see if coated dandelions fell slower with the presence of light.
• The third material tested was 3D Mylar Film Structures. The goal was to create physical samples of a mylar sphere - which was determined to be the optimum design.