The invention of holographic optical tweezers (HOTs) revolutionized the field of optical tweezers by allowing the simultaneous manipulation of many particles using arrays of scalar beams. Here, we go one step further and produce arrays of digitally controlled Higher-Order Poincaré Sphere (HOPs) beams employing a simple set-up using a spatial light modulator (SLM). Our system enables the on-demand manipulation of each beam in the array to obtain any HOPs state. We demonstrated trapping and tweezing with customized arrays of HOPs beams comprising scalar and cylindrical vector beams simultaneously in the same array. Our approach is general enough to be easily extended to arbitrary vector beams, could be implemented with fast refresh rates, and will be of interest to the structured light and optical manipulation communities alike.

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Nkosiphile Bhebhe, Peter A. C. Williams, Carmelo Rosales-Guzmán, Valeria Rodríguez-Fajardo, and Andrew Forbes, "On-demand vector holographic optical tweezers," Proc. SPIE 11083, Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XVI, 1108307 (Presented at SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering: August 11, 2019; Published: 9 September 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2528709.