Three dimensional optical manipulation and structural imaging of soft materials by use of laser tweezers and multimodal nonlinear microscopy

Published

December 15, 2010

Author(s)

Rahul P. Trivedi, Kristine A. Bertness, Ivan I. Smalyukh

Abstract

We develop an integrated system of holographic optical trapping and multimodal nonlinear microscopy and perform simultaneous three-dimensional optical manipulation and non-invasive structural imaging of composite soft-matter systems. We combine different nonlinear microscopy techniques such as coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, multi-photon excitation fluorescence and multi-harmonic generation, and use them for visualization of long-range molecular order in soft materials by means of their polarized excitation and detection. The combined system enables us to accomplish manipulation in composite soft materials such as colloidal inclusions in liquid crystals as well as imaging of each separate constituents of the composite material in different nonlinear optical modalities. We also demonstrate optical generation and control of topological defects and simultaneous reconstruction of their three- dimensional long-range molecular orientational patterns from the nonlinear optical images.

Citation

Optics Express

Volume

18

Issue

26

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.18.027658

Local Download

Keywords

laser trapping, multiphoton processes, nanowires, optical tweezers, optical nonlinearity

Citation

Trivedi, R. , Bertness, K. and Smalyukh, I. (2010), Three dimensional optical manipulation and structural imaging of soft materials by use of laser tweezers and multimodal nonlinear microscopy, Optics Express, [online], https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.18.027658, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=907356 (Accessed January 15, 2025)