Laser Trapping Using a Fiber Axicon Microlens

Abstract

In this paper, chemically etched axicon fibre was proposed for laser trapping of micro-objects dispersed in liquid. We fabricated axicon microlenses on a single-mode bare optical fibre using a selective chemical etching technique. The laser beam from a fibre axicon microlens was strongly focused and optical forces were sufficient to move microorganisms and biological cells without physical contact. From the experimental results, it was found that our proposed fibre axicon microlens is a promising tool for cell trapping and the apex angle of the chemically etched fibre axicon microlens is a very important parameter for laser trapping.