Modal liquid crystal devices in optical tweezing: 3D control and oscillating potential wells

Hands, PJW; Tatarkova, SA; Kirby, AK; Love, GD

doi:10.1364/oe.14.004525

Modal liquid crystal devices in optical tweezing: 3D control and oscillating potential wells

Hands, PJW; Tatarkova, SA; Kirby, AK; Love, GD

Authors

PJW Hands

SA Tatarkova

AK Kirby

GD Love

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 μm 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 μm. 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.

Citation

Hands, P., Tatarkova, S., Kirby, A., & Love, G. (2006). Modal liquid crystal devices in optical tweezing: 3D control and oscillating potential wells. Optics Express, 14(10), 4525-4537. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.14.004525

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	2006-05
Deposit Date	Mar 15, 2007
Publicly Available Date	Nov 10, 2010
Journal	Optics Express
Publisher	Optica
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	14
Issue	10
Pages	4525-4537
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.14.004525
Keywords	Lasers, Laser optics, Trapping, Liquid-crystal devices.
Publisher URL	http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?id=89934