Optical assembly of microparticles into highly ordered structures using Ince–Gaussian beams

Mike Woerdemann, Christina Alpmann, and Cornelia Denz

Ince–Gaussian (IG) beams are a third complete family of solutions of the paraxial Helmholtz equation. While many applications of Hermite–Gaussian and Laguerre–Gaussian beams have been demonstrated for manipulation of microparticles, the potential of the more general class of IG beams has not yet been exploited at all. We describe the unique properties of IG beams with respect to optical trapping applications, demonstrate a flexible experimental realization of arbitrary IG beams and prove the concept by creating two- and three-dimensional, highly ordered assemblies of typical microparticles. The concept is universal and can easily be integrated into existing holographic optical tweezers setups.

DOI