Reconfigurable counterpropagating holographic optical tweezers with low-NA lens
AssigneeKing Abdullah University of Science and Technology
InventorsCarlo Liberale, Andrea Bertoncini, Gheorghe Cojoc
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Abstract
A holographic optical tweezers for manipulating a micro- or nano-size particle, the optical tweezers including a light source configured to emit first and second light beams; a light focusing apparatus configured to focus the first and second light beams to generate focused light beams, which create optical forces; and a trapping assembly configured to receive the first and second focused light beams and form a trap for holding the particle with the optical forces. The trapping assembly includes first and second micromirrors attached to a microscope coverslip.
Claims20
A holographic optical tweezers for manipulating a micro- or nano-size particle, the optical tweezers comprising:
- a light source configured to emit first and second light beams;
- a light focusing apparatus configured to focus the first and second light beams to generate focused light beams, which create optical forces;
- and
- a trapping assembly configured to receive first and second, reflected, focused light beams and form a trap for holding the particle with the optical forces,
- wherein the trapping assembly includes first and second micromirrors attached to a microscope coverslip, the first focused light beam is reflected from the first micromirror and the second focused light beam is reflected from the second micromirror so that the first and second, reflected, focused light beams, after being reflected by the first and second micromirrors, respectively, are counterpropagating when first encountering the particle.
A holographic optical tweezers for manipulating a micro- or nano-size particle, the optical tweezers comprising:
- a laser device configured to emit a laser beam;
- a spatial light modulator configured to generate first and second light beams from the laser beam;
- a microscope objective configured to focus the first and second light beams to generate first and second focused light beams, which create a gradient force;
- a microscope coverslip;
- and
- first and second micromirrors configured to receive the first and second focused light beams and reflect the first and second focused light beams along counterpropagating directions to form a trap for holding the particle with the gradient force, and the first and second, reflected, focused light beams are counterpropagating, after being reflected from the first and second micromirrors, when first encountering the particle,
- wherein the first and second micromirrors are attached to the microscope coverslip.
A method for manipulating a micro- or nano-sized particle with a holographic optical tweezers, the method comprising:
- generating a laser beam with a laser device;
- splitting the laser beam with a spatial light modulator into first and second light beams;
- focusing with a microscope objective the first and second light beams, to generate first and second focused light beams, which create a gradient force;
- and
- adjusting, with first and second micromirrors and the spatial light modulator, directions of the first and second focused light beams to make the first and second, reflected, focused light beams to move along counterpropagating directions to form a trap for holding the particle with the gradient force,
- wherein the first, reflected, focused light beam is reflected from the first micromirror and the second, reflected, focused light beam is reflected from the second micromirror so that the first and second, reflected, focused light beams are counterpropagating when first encountering the particle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.