UC Irvine

We demonstrate a method using a spatial light modulator (SLM) to generate arbitrary 2-D spatial configurations of laser induced cavitation bubbles. The SLM acts as a phase hologram that controls the light distribution in the focal plane of a microscope objective. We generate cavitation bubbles over an area of 380x380 mu m(2) with a 20x microscope objective through absorption of the pulsed laser light in a liquid ink solution. We demonstrate the ability to accurately position up to 34 micrometer sized bubbles using laser energies of 56 mu J. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America