Abstract
Flow of micro particles and fluids is important in many microscopic systems. Here we present details of our finding of a directional flow of micro particles due to a single beam optical trap. It was found that the directional flow depends upon the size of optical trap, the number density of particles in the solution and the time after the trap was created. We suggest controlling the motion of microscopic particles in a fluid by varying a simple parameter like beam size for microfluidics applications.
Highlights
Since the pioneering work done by Ashkin [1] on single beam gradient trap sometimes referred to as optical tweezers, optical trapping has found diverse applications in biophysical and colloidal studies as a tool for micromanipulation [2,3,4,5,6,7]
In late 1980s invention of 3D optical traps popularly known as optical tweezers caught the fancy of biologists and the work shifted towards trapping and manipulating single biological cells
Light intensity of the trap has been used to control the flow of particles earlier [9], these methods relied on well established technique for optical trapping and used overfilling of the objective lens for their purpose
Summary
Since the pioneering work done by Ashkin [1] on single beam gradient trap sometimes referred to as optical tweezers, optical trapping has found diverse applications in biophysical and colloidal studies as a tool for micromanipulation [2,3,4,5,6,7]. In most of the applications, microscopic objects like particles, colloids or biological cells moving around in a fluid are forced to remain confined in the trap volume. In 1980s when researchers were still struggling for a 3D trap, Buican et al [8] used properties of a 2D optical trap for transporting microspheres and biological cells to millimeter distances. Their automated optical manipulator used two orthogonal laser beams—propulsion beam and deflection beam for this purpose while a third beam was used as a probe beam to discriminate cells to be deflected. Light intensity of the trap has been used to control the flow of particles earlier [9], these methods relied on well established technique for optical trapping and used overfilling of the objective lens for their purpose
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