Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 34: Posters: New Technologies

BP 34.4: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B2

The Optical Cell Rotator: Image propagation through fibers for contact-free rotation of cells — •Michael Schmidberger, Moritz Kreysing, and Jochen Guck — Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge

The Optical Cell Rotator (OCR) is a dual-beam laser trap that allows to hold and orient living cells stable in 3D. Unlike earlier versions of fiber-based traps, OCR uses fibers supporting more than one optical mode. Combined with adaptive optics, this allows for the generation of non-trivial trapping geometries while still having all the advantages of fibers.

We provide detailed analysis of the problems one faces when trying to propagate images through optical fibers. We then present solutions specifically interesting for optical trapping applications and show how these results can be used to rotate living cells stepwise through the focal plane of practically any optical microscope. Finally, we discuss how this feedback independent rotation mechanism can serve as basis for already established, but so far impractical tomographic imaging techniques.