Integrated optomechanical microelements

We integrate the optical elements required to generate optical orbital angular momentum into a microdevice. This allows the rotation of either naturally occuring microparticles or specially fabricated optical rotors. We use a two photon photopolymerization process to create microscopic diffractive optical elements, customized to a wavelength of choice, which are integrated with micromachines in microfluidic devices. This enables the application of high optical torques with off-the-shelf optical tweezers systems. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.