Study of the stability of optical tweezers

Abstract

The aim of this project is twofold: to analyze the stability of optical tweezers and to implement a new scheme to generate them. The initial analysis is done by comparing the two most common multiple object manipulation techniques, which are the Time-Sharing Optical Tweezers (TSOT) and Holographic Optical Tweezers (HOT). To achieve this, a trap calibration framework is designed using a high-speed camera that allows to analyze particle dynamics with high temporal and spatial resolution. Once the advantages and disadvantages of each method are known, a new scheme is proposed and implemented using elements of the two most used techniques combined. The combination results in simultaneously generating two types of traps, having the speed of TSOT with the stability of HOT. This allows to generate more stable traps than with TSOT, while being compatible with force measurement techniques