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 Poincare 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.
