Holographic phase contrast for dynamic multiple-beam optical tweezers

Mike Woerdemann, Frank Holtmann and Cornelia Denz

We propose and demonstrate holographic phase contrast (HPC) as a new method to transfer a spatial phase distribution of arbitrary shape into a corresponding intensity pattern. A powerful application of HPC is the use in optical tweezers to dynamically control multiple traps like arrays or even more complex trapping geometries. Due to the image plane nature of HPC no hologram calculation is required and hence real-time control of complex tweezers configurations is possible. The inherent optical amplification by HPC can improve the fundamental limit in trapping power in optical tweezers that are based on common spatial light modulators.

DOI