OPTICAL TRAPPING

Optical trapping with laser tweezers has proven to be a useful device for manipulating objects on a microscopic scale. Many systems of interest require multiple optical traps and several methods have been developed to achieve multiple trap configurations. However all of these methods for increasing the number of traps make the optical system increasingly more complex. Consequently currently available trapping systems can produce at most only a few independent traps. Recently, Grier and Dufresne conceived of a new solution for achieving a multi- trap system. In their method a hologram is used to alter a single laser beam's wavefront. The wavefront is altered so that the downstream laser beam forms a large number of individual laser beams with relative positions and directions of travel fixed by the exact nature of the hologram. The hologram can be calculated from a user specified pattern of desired trap positions. Currently a laboratory prototype has been fabricated. This prototype has demonstrated the ability create the holograms and to trap multiple (up to 200) particles in any chosen p Item. The prototype has not been optimized for use by individuals without expertise in optics. We propose developing a commercial version of the holographic optical tweezers (HOT) along with a sample chamber suitable for introducing, manipulating and collecting specimens. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Not available