Author Affiliations
Abstract
1 Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information and Sensing Technologies of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
2 Department of Optoelectronic Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
3 Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA
4 e-mail: thzhechen@jnu.edu.cn
Opto-conveyors have attracted widespread interest in various fields because of their non-invasive and non-contact delivery of micro/nanoparticles. However, the flexible control of the delivery distance and the dynamic steering of the delivery direction, although very desirable in all-optical manipulation, have not yet been achieved by opto-conveyors. Here, using a simple and cost-effective scheme of an elliptically focused laser beam obliquely irradiated on a substrate, a direction-steerable and distance-controllable opto-conveyor for the targeting delivery of microparticles is implemented. Theoretically, in the proposed scheme of the opto-conveyor, the transverse and longitudinal resultant forces of the optical gradient force and the optical scattering force result in the transverse confinement and the longitudinal transportation of microparticles, respectively. In this study, it is experimentally shown that the proposed opto-conveyor is capable of realizing the targeting delivery for microparticles. Additionally, the delivery distance of microparticles can be flexibly and precisely controlled by simply adjusting the irradiation time. By simply rotating the cylindrical lens, the proposed opto-conveyor is capable of steering the delivery direction flexibly within a large range of azimuthal angles, from to 75°. This study also successfully demonstrated the real-time dynamic steering of the delivery direction from to 45° with the dynamical rotation of the cylindrical lens. Owing to its simplicity, flexibility, and controllability, the proposed method is capable of creating new opportunities in bioassays as well as in drug delivery.
Photonics Research
2020, 8(7): 07001124