Acoustic tweezer and its biomedical applications

Abstract

Acoustic tweezer, the counterpart of optical tweezer in acoustics, was developed more than 10 years later than optical tweezer. It has been found to be capable of performing many tasks similar to optical tweezer but substantial differences also exist. Because of its larger wavelength, acoustic tweezer manipulates larger particles and yields larger forces in the nanonewton range. A number of biomedical applications have been studied including measuring intercellular forces and cellular mechanical properties. These results along with its physical principles will reviewed in this paper.