Meadowlark Optics
3D Holographic Optical Tweezing Kit
3D Holographic Optical Tweezing Kit
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Holographic optical tweezing involves using focused laser beams to precisely move objects in a 3D space. This technique is valuable for research in physics, biology, and trapping cold atoms. Meadowlark Optics offers the Optical Tweezing Kit, which is a portable and self-contained platform for optical tweezing. It includes a user-friendly graphical interface and software development kit, allowing researchers to customize, calibrate, and perform computations without needing in-depth knowledge of tweezing theory.
A Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) is employed to adjust the laser beam’s phase, creating a 3D region of focal points. Objects with a higher refractive index are attracted to these focal points, allowing manipulation of objects with diameters from 10 nm to 100 μm with precise control.
Key requirements for the SLM in this application include high resolution, phase stability, and speed. Resolution determines the manipulated field of view and the number of traps, impacting experimental throughput. Phase stability ensures a stable trap with minimized incident power. High-speed SLMs can dynamically reduce Brownian motion, maximizing trap strength and minimizing required power. In biological studies, limiting incident power and exposure duration is crucial for maintaining sample viability. For these reasons, the Meadowlark kit comes standard with the 1920 x 1200 SLM. Other Meadowlark SLMs can be used according to your requirements.