Generation and imaging of structural laser beams for optical trapping of airborne particles and light-matter interaction applications.
type: CreativeWork
description: Recently emerged non-diffracting optical Bessel-Gaussian beams have extended the `optical toolbox' in laser interaction with matter studies, providing many techniques that are not possible using conventional Gaussian beams. The research work performed under this thesis focuses on the design, generation, re-configuration, and exploration of the flexibility of BG beam for a broad range of studies of laser-matter interaction. The numerically modelled BG beam structures are experimentally tested and applied in two substantially different experimental environments. These include the generation and re-imaging of a dynamically varying BG beam, whose morphology is shaped using a Spatial Light Modulator for low-intensity applications and the generation of a static Bessel beam shaped by an axicon to be used with high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses. The first set of experiments explores the construction of a slow-diverging optical funnel based on the generation of a higher-order BG beam using a continuous wave (cw) laser beam and a SLM. The use of hollow-core BG beams have already been demonstrated for pipeline-guiding of sub-micron particles and biological macromolecules in experiments of protein nano-crystallography using x-ray diffracting imaging. The particle dynamical interaction with the beam relies on two fundamental light-induced effects that can be applied on matter, namely, radiation pressure and photophoresis. Here, we generate a SLM-formed BG beam with variable topological charge in combination with different re-imaging systems that enable us to create flexible output beams. We also demonstrate the flexibility in controlling the beam shape, the diameter of the central dark core and the angle of divergence. As a result, the analysis of trajectories of the particles trapped inside the funnel and the modelled intensity distribution of the beam allowed us to evaluate the optical forces exerted on the sub-micron particles and uncover, for the first time in our knowl…
abstract: Recently emerged non-diffracting optical Bessel-Gaussian beams have extended the `optical toolbox' in laser interaction with matter studies, providing many techniques that are not possible using conventional Gaussian beams. The research work performed under this thesis focuses on the design, generation, re-configuration, and exploration of the flexibility of BG beam for a broad range of studies of laser-matter interaction. The numerically modelled BG beam structures are experimentally tested and applied in two substantially different experimental environments. These include the generation and re-imaging of a dynamically varying BG beam, whose morphology is shaped using a Spatial Light Modulator for low-intensity applications and the generation of a static Bessel beam shaped by an axicon to be used with high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses. The first set of experiments explores the construction of a slow-diverging optical funnel based on the generation of a higher-order BG beam using a continuous wave (cw) laser beam and a SLM. The use of hollow-core BG beams have already been demonstrated for pipeline-guiding of sub-micron particles and biological macromolecules in experiments of protein nano-crystallography using x-ray diffracting imaging. The particle dynamical interaction with the beam relies on two fundamental light-induced effects that can be applied on matter, namely, radiation pressure and photophoresis. Here, we generate a SLM-formed BG beam with variable topological charge in combination with different re-imaging systems that enable us to create flexible output beams. We also demonstrate the flexibility in controlling the beam shape, the diameter of the central dark core and the angle of divergence. As a result, the analysis of trajectories of the particles trapped inside the funnel and the modelled intensity distribution of the beam allowed us to evaluate the optical forces exerted on the sub-micron particles and uncover, for the first time in our knowl…
author: Lavin Varela, Sebastian
language: en_AU
date published: 2025
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:54:33Z
provider: Australian National University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian National University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733767333