Dynamically reconfigurable interferometric optical tweezers: Tailoring 3D colloidal lattices and tunable micromachines

Real-time controlled manipulation of microparticles optically trapped in three dimensional (3D)-trap array lattices generated by dynamically reconfigurable phase engineered non-coplanar multiple plane wave interference in an umbrella-like beam geometry is presented. Reconfigurable stable 3D interferometric optical tweezers belonging to diverse transverse rotational symmetry are realized and used to trap micrometer sized silica beads to build colloidal lattices. Further, in addition to dynamically controlled translation of trapped array of particles, rotation of intertwined helically-stacked microparticles assemblies as real-time tunable light-driven micromachines is also presented.