Abstract
This review presents an up-dated summary of the fundamentals and applications of optoelectronic photovoltaic tweezers for trapping and manipulation of nano-objects on the surface of lithium niobate crystals. It extends the contents of previous reviews to cover new topics and developments which have emerged in recent years and are marking the trends for future research. Regarding the theoretical description of photovoltaic tweezers, detailed simulations of the electrophoretic and dielectrophoretic forces acting on different crystal configurations are discussed in relation to the structure of the obtained trapping patterns. As for the experimental work, we will pay attention to the manipulation and patterning of micro-and nanoparticles that has experimented an outstanding progress and relevant applications have been reported. An additional focus is now laid on recent work about micro-droplets, which is a central topic in microfluidics and optofluidics. New developments in biology and biomedicine also constitute a relevant part of the review. Finally, some topics partially related with photovoltaic tweezers and a discussion on future prospects and challenges are included.
Highlights
Optical tools for trapping and manipulation of micro- and nano-particles have recently experienced a rapid and impressive development
Particular attention has been recently paid to one of these methods based on the bulk photovoltaic effect (PVE) [12,13] exhibited by polar crystals such as lithium niobate, and designated as photovoltaic tweezers (PVT) [14]
Habibpourmoghadam et al [43] presented related experiments on optical manipulation manipulation of liquid crystal (LC) films deposited on iron doped LiNbO3 substrates
Summary
Optical tools for trapping and manipulation of micro- and nano-particles have recently experienced a rapid and impressive development. It appears opportune to summarily describe the latest achievements on this substrate material, including some topics that are acquiring great relevance They are expected to open new directions for future basic research and technological applications. We have devoted special attention in this review to summarily quote recent work on this exciting topic which has not been adequately reviewed so far
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