Dynamic microparticle manipulation through light structures generated by a self-calibrated Liquid Crystal on Silicon display

Abstract

This paper is devoted to investigating the application of different dynamic light structures generated by a self-calibrated Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) display for microparticle manipulation. Two major studies based on implementing different DOEs, to thoroughly characterize the LCoS display and to achieve optical-inspired particle manipulation, are proposed, respectively. On the one hand, we dynamically introduced two diffractive lens based patterns (the Billet-lens configuration and the micro-lens array pattern) on the LCoS display, from which the self-calibration of the studied device is implemented. In this case, both the phase-voltage relation and the surface profile were determined and optimized to the optimal performance for microparticle manipulation. On the other hand, we performed the optical manipulation of microparticles by addressing configurable three-dimensional light structures obtained from different phase driven split-lens configurations initiated by the same but optimized LCoS display. Experimental results demonstrated that, by addressing certain phase distributions on the LCoS display, the microparticle can be trapped in the light cones and manipulated by providing certain continuous split-lens configurations.