An optical trap based on conical refraction of light
2011
Conical refraction produces the well-known ring profile when circularly polarised light is incident on a biaxial crystal.
Conical diffraction of linearly polarised light in a biaxial crystal produces a beam with a crescent-shaped intensity
profile. Rotation of the plane of polarisation of the incident light produces the unique effect of spatially moving the
crescent-shaped beam around a ring. We use this effect to trap microspheres and white blood cells and to position them
at any angular position on the ring. Continuous motion around the circle is also demonstrated by rotating the input linear
polarisation. The ability to spatially locate a beam and an associated trapped object simply by varying the polarisation of
light suggests that this optical process should find application in the manipulation and actuation of micro- and nano-scale
physical and biological objects.
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