Sphere in the Optical Trap: Geometrical Optics

Overview

This project simulates the behavior of a spherical particle trapped in an optical trap using principles of geometrical optics. The simulation models the forces acting on the sphere due to the interaction with laser light, providing insights into the dynamics of optical trapping.

This project is created to demonstrate the optical trapping of a sphere and may not be used for the real force calculation.

Implementation Details

The simulation is entirely written in Python, leveraging the Pygame library for the UI. Pygame provides an interactive and visually intuitive way to observe the behavior of the sphere in the optical trap, making it easier to analyze and interpret the results.

Usage

You can start the application by running (see Manual Installation):

python main.py

There are 2 option menu:

• Real-time Simulation:

  simulate the movement of a sphere in the optical trap.

• Force Calculation

  calculate the force during selected axis.

Limitations

This project is based on geometrical optics approach. If you are looking for the robust results of optical trapping forces, you may use Optical Tweezers Toolbox.

• It is limited to spherical particles and does not handle irregular shapes.
• The model is based on geometrical optics and may not capture wave-optical effects.
• The wavelength of the beam of the simulation is fixed at 1064 nm.
• Only single scattering of rays is assumed.

Manual Installation

To use this project, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository (installed git is required):

   git clone https://github.com/Petr-Ermolinskiy/Sphere_Geom_Optics_Trap.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd Sphere_Geom_Optics_Trap

3. Create a virtual environment using python 3.12.7:

   python -m venv venv

4. Activate the virtual environment:
   • On Windows:

   venv\Scripts\activate

   • On macOS/Linux:

   source venv/bin/activate

5. Install the required dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

6. Run the simulation script:

   python main.py

Make an executable app

You can create an executable app using pyinstaller:

pyinstaller --windowed --add-data=logo.png:. --name='GO_sphere_in_OT' main.py

Author

This project was developed by Petr Ermolinskiy.

Cite

If you use this project in your research, please cite it as follows:

Ermolinskiy, Petr. "Sphere in the Optical Trap: Geometrical Optics." GitHub Repository, 2023. https://github.com/Petr-Ermolinskiy/Sphere_Geom_Optics_Trap