Optical Tweezers and Optical Trapping Improved for Future Automated Micromanipulation and Characterization

Optical trap arrays are being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center for holding, manipulating, and optically interrogating arrays of nanotube sensors. The trap arrays, for example, might be used to arrange arrays of chemical sensors for insertion onto a chip in liquid, air, and vacuum environments. Neural-network-controlled spatial light modulators (SLMs) are to generate and control the trap positions and trap profiles in three dimensions