Abstract
We investigate the use of liquid crystal (LC) adaptive optics elements to provide full 3 dimensional particle control in an optical tweezer. These devices are suitable for single controllable traps, and so are less versatile than many of the competing technologies which can be used to control multiple particles. However, they have the advantages of simplicity and light efficiency. Furthermore, compared to binary holographic optical traps they have increased positional accuracy. The transmissive LC devices could be retro-fitted to an existing microscope system. An adaptive modal LC lens is used to vary the z-focal position over a range of up to 100 mum and an adaptive LC beam-steering device is used to deflect the beam (and trapped particle) in the x-y plane within an available radius of 10 mum. Furthermore, by modifying the polarisation of the incident light, these LC components also offer the opportunity for the creation of dual optical traps of controllable depth and separation.
Highlights
A number of techniques have been developed to allow the electronic control of optical beams in optical tweezers
In this paper we describe and demonstrate 3D particle manipulation based on modal addressing of liquid crystal (LC), which is a complementary addressing technique
We demonstrate the “optical juggling” of a particle between two adjacent potential wells, where the spacing and depths of the well is controllable by the LC
Summary
A number of techniques have been developed to allow the electronic control of optical beams in optical tweezers. These include holographic optical traps (HOTs) [1,2,3,4,5,6] and the generalised phase contrast (GPC) technique [7,8,9,10,11]. Impressive results have been published using both these techniques showing the manipulation of multiple particles in 3D. In this paper we describe and demonstrate 3D particle manipulation based on modal addressing of LCs, which is a complementary addressing technique. We demonstrate the “optical juggling” of a particle between two adjacent potential wells, where the spacing and depths of the well is controllable by the LC
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