Optimizing Focal Plane Alignment for Optical Tweezers: A Guide for Researchers

[kubikat]

Ah I was meaning to thank everyone who helped me build mine. That was extremely nice and finally allowed me to graduate :D

@hopeful: If you are an undergrad, I can probably help you out. I have written a manual on how to build a tweezer. But if you are a grad/have some optics experience, all of my writing is probably way below your level.

 

[hopeful]

kubikat, I would absolutely LOVE to see your manual! I'm positive your writing will be great since I only have a small amount of optics experience. I am a grad, but my major was math, and I'm just now getting into optics in a couple of undergrad courses.

Congratulations on graduating!

 

[kubikat]

Here is the link to where I posted my thesis paper + the manual.
https://sites.google.com/site/anyakash87/physics/optical-tweezers

It is written specifically for our equipment, so I don't know if it would be much help. Also it is written for college sophomores/juniors with no experience whatsoever, hence the lengthy description of how to turn on the laser diode controller or how to align the lenses. (I didn't know that stuff when I started working on them...)

Hope this helps at least a little :)

** Also it might have errors in it, since I didn't have anyone with optics background review it...

 

[Redbelly98]

Welcome to PF, hopeful. Good luck with your tweezers!

 

[hopeful]

Thank you very much, Redbelly.

Kubikat, your papers and presentation look great. Your diagrams, photos, and writing are very well done. Thank you for the link. It's exactly on the level I need since I started this project almost blind to the optics field. This gives me a fantastic guideline to go by.

As far as errors go, any optics formulas I include will be theoretically and experimentally tested by both my professor and myself. Even if I was using a formula directly from a paper by Ashkin, I would still need to do this step.

Thank you again. I will be sure to list your work in the bibliography and acknowledgment section when I get my presentation together.

 

[hopeful]

Kubikat, my professor is excited about your manual. I already overheard him telling one of the grad students about your work and he said we can use it as a guideline for building our own set up.

After re-reading my previous post from Feb 6, I think it sounds sort of funny. All I meant was that if there are errors, (which I haven't seen so far, nor do I expect to) then we will find them, since I have to go over anything I use for my presentation with a fine tooth comb.

Again, my professor and I both appreciate your help, and by extension that of Andy and Redbelly. :D