Optical fiber tweezers fabricated by guided wave photo-polymerization

Abstract

In this work the use of guided wave photo-polymerization for the fabrication of novel polymeric micro tips for optical trapping is demonstrated. It is shown that the selective excitation of linear polarized modes, during the fabrication process, has a direct impact on the shape of the resulting micro structures. Tips are fabricated with modes LP02 and LP21 and their shapes and output intensity distribution are compared. The application of the micro structures as optical tweezers is demonstrated with the manipulation of yeast cells.