Design strategies for optimizing holographic optical tweezers set-ups

We provide a detailed account of the construction of a system of holographic optical tweezers. While a lot of information is available on the design, alignment and calibration of other optical trapping configurations, those based on holography are relatively poorly described. Inclusion of a spatial light modulator in the set-up gives rise to particular design trade-offs and constraints, and the system benefits from specific optimization strategies, which we discuss.