Dynamic holographic optical tweezers using a twisted-nematic liquid crystal display

In this paper, we realize dynamic holographic optical tweezers (HOT) using a commercial twisted-nematic liquid crystal display (TN-LCD) removed from a video projector, and manipulate multiple particles simultaneously. After measuring the parameters of the TN-LCD, we find that it is not suited to work as a phase-only modulator for infrared optical tweezers because of the small range of its phase modulation. To overcome this shortcoming, we employ binary computer-generated holograms obtained with the Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm instead of kinoforms, and optimize the diffraction efficiency of the TN-LCD by the choice of the polarization angel of the input laser and the two grey level video signals driving the TN-LCD. Since TN-LCDs are more prevalent than other types of LC devices, such as parallel-aligned nematic and ferroelectric LC devices, our approach provides an easier and lower-cost access to the set-up of a HOT system.

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