A spatial light modulator (SLM) is a versatile device capable of real-time generation of diffractive phase gratings. Employing the SLM in an optical setup opens the possibility of dynamic modification of properties of the incident laser beam, such as its splitting into an arbitrary number of diffracted beams, changing its convergence or its modification into non-traditional laser beam profiles. Advanced feedback procedures enable resolving complex phase masks correcting aberrations inherent to the whole optical system, such as imprecisions of manufacturing process, inhomogeneity of refractive index of materials used or misalignment of optical elements. In this work, generation of Bessel beams (BB) using the SLM is presented. The BB quality is very sensitive to the optical aberrations of the system, especially when higher topological charge is applied to create so-called optical vortices. Therefore, the method compensating those aberrations is applied and the corrected beam is inspected by a CCD camera and optical micro-manipulations of micro-particles. Our experimental results demonstrate successful trapping, rotation and translation of micrometer-sized particles purely by optical forces.

Date Published: 7 January 2015
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9442, Optics and Measurement Conference 2014, 94420G (7 January 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2175908

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9442:
Optics and Measurement Conference 2014
Jana Kovačičinová; Tomáš Vít, Editor(s)