By using a specialty optical fiber, a series of powerful microparticle manipulation tools, including optical tweezers, a micro-optical hand, and an optical gun, are developed and demonstrated. In this paper, a review of our research activities on the optical manipulation of microparticles is presented. In particular, we will describe a kind of specialty optical fiber designed and fabricated for building optical trapping and manipulating tools. The performances of annular core fiber-based optical tweezers, a multicore fiber-based micro-optical hand, and a coaxial dual waveguide fiber-based optical gun are demonstrated as examples of applications and discussed in detail. The fiber can be used in cell manipulation in life science and drug response in medicine.

The changes of mechanical properties and biological activities of monomeric erythrocytes are studied using optical tweezers micromanipulation technology. Firstly, the mechanical properties of irradiated erythrocyte membranes are obtained. Weaker power laser irradiation can delay the decay of the mechanical properties of erythrocytes and promote the biological activity of erythrocytes, while higher power laser irradiation damages erythrocytes. The stronger the laser irradiation is, the more obvious and rapid the damage will be. The temperature of the cell surface will be changed by regulating the laser power and irradiation time, so the biological functions of erythrocyte can be controlled. Secondly, the finite element simulation of the temperature change on the cell surface under the condition of laser irradiation is carried out using simulation software, and the precise temperature of the cell surface irradiated cumulatively by a laser with different powers is obtained. Finally, the processes of abscission, unfolding, and denaturation of hemoglobins in erythrocytes at different temperatures due to the photothermal effect are analyzed using the model. The mechanism of laser irradiation on the elasticity of erythrocyte membranes is also obtained.

We propose and demonstrate single fiber dual-functionality optical tweezers based on a graded-index multimode fiber. By using the multi-angle fiber grinding and polishing technology, we fabricate the multimode fiber tip to be a special tapered shape, contributing to focus the outgoing beam with a large intensity gradient for the first functionality—three-dimensional contactless trapping of a microparticle. By adjusting the radial direction offset between the lead-in single mode fiber and the graded-index multimode fiber, we perform the second functionality—axial shift of the trapped microparticle with respect to the fiber tip without need of moving the fiber probe itself. It is convenient for practical applications. The theoretical and experimental results about the relationship between the radial offset and the equilibrium positions of the microparticle have the good consistency. Tailoring the trap and axial shift of the microparticle based on the graded-index multimode fiber provides convenient avenues for fiber optical tweezers applied in practical researches.

We have used a gold nanohole array to trap single polystyrene nanoparticles, with a mean diameter of 30 nm, into separated hot spots located at connecting nanoslot regions. A high trap stiffness of approximately 0.85 fN/(nm·mW) at a low-incident laser intensity of ～0.51 mW/μm2 at 980 nm was obtained. The experimental results were compared to the simulated trapping force, and a reasonable match was achieved. This plasmonic array is useful for lab-on-a-chip applications and has particular appeal for trapping multiple nanoparticles with predefined separations or arranged in patterns in order to study interactions between them.

Strong plasmonic focal spots, excited by radially polarized light on a smooth thin metallic film, have been widely applied to trap various micro- and nano-sized objects. However, the direct transmission part of the incident light leads to the scattering force exerted on trapped particles, which seriously affects the stability of the plasmonic trap. Here we employ a novel perfect radially polarized beam to solve this problem. Both theoretical and experimental results verify that such a beam could strongly suppress the directly transmitted light to reduce the piconewton scattering force, and an enhanced plasmonic trapping stiffness that is 2.6 times higher is achieved in experiments. The present work opens up new opportunities for a variety of research requiring the stable manipulations of particles.

Optical traps use focused laser beams to generate forces on targeted objects ranging in size from nanometers to micrometers. However, for their high coefficients of scattering and absorption, micrometer-sized metallic particles were deemed non-trappable in three dimensions using a single beam. This barrier is now removed. We demonstrate, both in theory and experiment, three-dimensional (3D) dynamic all-optical manipulations of micrometer-sized gold particles under high focusing conditions. The force of gravity is found to balance the positive axial optical force exerted on particles in an inverted optical tweezers system to form two trapping positions along the vertical direction. Both theoretical and experimental results confirm that stable 3D manipulations are achievable for these particles regardless of beam polarization and wavelength. The present work opens up new opportunities for a variety of in-depth research requiring metallic particles.

Optical trapping techniques are of great interest since they have the advantage of enabling the direct handling of nanoparticles. Among various optical trapping systems, photonic crystal nanobeam cavities have attracted great attention for integrated on-chip trapping and manipulation. However, optical trapping with high efficiency and low input power is still a big challenge in nanobeam cavities because most of the light energy is confined within the solid dielectric region. To this end, by incorporating a nanoslotted structure into an ultracompact one-dimensional photonic crystal nanobeam cavity structure, we design a promising on-chip device with ultralarge trapping potential depth to enhance the optical trapping characteristic of the cavity. In this work, we first provide a systematic analysis of the optical trapping force for an airborne polystyrene (PS) nanoparticle trapped in a cavity model. Then, to validate the theoretical analysis, the numerical simulation proof is demonstrated in detail by using the three-dimensional finite element method. For trapping a PS nanoparticle of 10 nm radius within the air-slot, a maximum trapping force as high as 8.28 nN/mW and a depth of trapping potential as large as 1.15×105 kBT mW 1 are obtained, where kB is the Boltzmann constant and T is the system temperature. We estimate a lateral trapping stiffness of 167.17 pN·nm 1· mW 1 for a 10 nm radius PS nanoparticle along the cavity x-axis, more than two orders of magnitude higher than previously demonstrated on-chip, near field traps. Moreover, the threshold power for stable trapping as low as 0.087 μW is achieved. In addition, trapping of a single 25 nm radius PS nanoparticle causes a 0.6 nm redshift in peak wavelength. Thus, the proposed cavity device can be used to detect single nanoparticle trapping by monitoring the resonant peak wavelength shift. We believe that the architecture with features of an ultracompact footprint, high integrability with optical waveguides/circuits, and efficient trapping demonstrated here will provide a promising candidate for developing a lab-on-a-chip device with versatile functionalities.

We report here a nanostructure that traps single quantum dots for studying strong cavity-emitter coupling. The nanostructure is designed with two elliptical holes in a thin silver patch and a slot that connects the holes. This structure has two functionalities: (1) tweezers for optical trapping; (2) a plasmonic resonant cavity for quantum electrodynamics. The electromagnetic response of the cavity is calculated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, and the optical force is characterized based on the Maxwell’s stress tensor method. To be tweezers, this structure tends to trap quantum dots at the edges of its tips where light is significantly confined. To be a plasmonic cavity, its plasmonic resonant mode interacts strongly with the trapped quantum dots due to the enhanced electric field. Rabi splitting and anti-crossing phenomena are observed in the calculated scattering spectra, demonstrating that a strong-coupling regime has been achieved. The method present here provides a robust way to position a single quantum dot in a nanocavity for investigating cavity quantum electrodynamics.