Abstract
Lens effect was obtained in an open microfluidic system by using a thin layer of liquid on a polar electric crystal like LiNbO3. An array of liquid micro-lenses was generated by electrowetting effect in pyroelectric periodically poled crystals. Compared to conventional electrowetting devices, the pyroelectric effect allowed to have an electrode-less and circuit-less configuration. An interferometric technique was used to characterize the curvature of the micro-lenses and the corresponding results are presented and discussed. The preliminary results concerning the imaging capability of the micro-lens array are also reported.
Highlights
The liquid lens effect is well known and several examples can be found in nature
The results presented in this paper show the possibility to build electrowetting devices based on a new concept related to the electrical activation of periodically poled LN (PPLN) substrates by the pyroelectric effect
Further experiments are being investigated in order to optimize the design and control of the temperature activation, providing the possibility to exploit this new configuration in many fields of application within the bio-micro-optofluidics area. Such kind of lithium niobate (LN) substrates would be part of a PDMS based microfluidic chip, allowing to perform flexible imaging of flowing particles, fluids or biological cells, by a relatively simple technique
Summary
The liquid lens effect is well known and several examples can be found in nature. Lensing lighting intensity patterns can be observed on the bottom of a swimming pool or caused by the curvature of the water induced by the surface tension [1]. A sessile liquid drop free standing on a flat electrode surface can be manipulated by a second needle-like electrode immersed into the drop [10] Another possible configuration consists of a liquid drop between two plane parallel electrodes, useful for the fabrication of complex optical switches [4,11]. The possibility to functionalize a specific and appropriate material to get a microfluidic lens array on a single chip is foreseen in this paper. This vision could lead to the realization in future of an optofluidic lens array on a microscopic scale
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