Interactive application in holographic optical tweezers of a multi-plane Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm for three-dimensional light shaping

Phase-hologram patterns that can shape the intensity distribution of a light beam in several planes simultaneously can be calculated with an iterative Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm [T. Haist et al., Opt. Commun. 140, 299 ( 1997)]. We apply this algorithm in holographic optical tweezers. This allows us to simultaneously trap several objects in individually controllable arbitrary 3-dimensional positions. We demonstrate the interactive use of our approach by trapping microscopic spheres and moving them into an arbitrary 3-dimensional configuration. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.