Holographic optical trapping

Holographic optical tweezers use computer-generated holograms to create arbitrary three-dimensional configurations of single-beam optical traps that are useful for capturing, moving, and transforming mesoscopic objects. Through a combination of beam-splitting, mode-forming, and adaptive wavefront correction, holographic traps can exert precisely specified and characterized forces and torques on objects ranging in size from a few nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. Offering nanometer-scale spatial resolution and real-time reconfigurability, holographic optical traps provide unsurpassed access to the microscopic world and have found applications in fundamental research, manufacturing, and materials processing.