Holographic optical trapping

David G. Grier and Yael Roichman
Department of Physics and Center for Soft Matter Research, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003

Abstract:

Holographic optical tweezers use computer-generated holograms to create arbitrary three-dimensional configurations of single-beam optical traps useful for capturing, moving and transforming mesoscopic objects. Through a combination of beam-splitting, mode forming, and adaptive wavefront correction, holographic traps can exert precisely specified and characterized forces and torques on objects ranging in size from a few nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. Offering nanometer-scale spatial resolution and real-time reconfigurability, holographic optical traps provide unsurpassed access to the microscopic world and have found applications in fundamental research, manufacturing and materials processing.
Key words: Optical trapping, computational holography, digital video microscopy