Investigating Optical Beam Shifts in a Tilted Linear Polarizer System, and Studying Intracellular Protein Dynamics Using Single Particle Tracking

Bordoloi, Priyanuj (2022) Investigating Optical Beam Shifts in a Tilted Linear Polarizer System, and Studying Intracellular Protein Dynamics Using Single Particle Tracking. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

Text (MS dissertation of Priyanuj Bordoloi (17MS094)) 17MS094_Thesis_file.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (8MB)

Abstract

Light-matter interaction is a crucial tool that has enabled us to study different physical systems, be it for detecting small optical effects in anisotropic materials or intracellular cell imaging. For the first part of the project report, we investigate intriguing beam shifts that occur when an optical beam passes through a tilted linear polarizer system. In general, these shifts result from the dispersion of transmission coefficients of the anisotropic material, and for suitable incident polarization of light, we can achieve large optical beam shifts. Moreover, by incorporating the threedimensional geometry of the titled polarizer system, we show the tunability of the magnitude and direction of these giant beam shift. We also present a robust theoretical framework to describe such dynamic beam shifts. With such control, our work opens up the possibility for high precision micron-scale beam steering. In the second part of the project report, we investigate the spatio-temporal properties of intracellular proteins present in eukaryotic cells; especially, we try to understand the movement of proteins associated with cellular membrane contact sites, which are present in bulk (or near the nucleus) of the cell. To do this, we use fluorescence imaging and highly inclined and laminated optical sheet (HILO) microscopy, which enables us to image and obtain trajectories of these proteins present in these inner regions of the cell with minimal background noise. Moreover, we study the current methods of trajectory characterization using simulated trajectories to understand their accuracy. Lastly, we analyze experimentally obtained trajectories to characterize their behavior and observe changes in their movement upon changing intracellular conditions. Through this, we wish to understand and implement single particle tracking.

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