Controlling the trajectories of nano or micro particles using light-actuated Marangoni flow
New publication in Nano Letters
2018/11/23
Researchers at the Institute of Nano- and Microfluidics and colleagues from the National Institute of Technology Calicut and Tsinghua University have developed a method enabling the trapping and manipulation of nano- and microparticles based on interfacial flows controlled by visible light.
The ability to manipulate small objects and to produce patterns on the nano- and microscale is of great importance, both with respect to fundamentals and technological applications. The manipulation of particles with diameters of the order of 100 nm or below is a challenge because of their Brownian motion but also because of the scaling behavior of methods such as optical trapping.
The researchers have developed a method enabling the trapping and manipulation of nano- and microparticles based on interfacial flows controlled by visible light. The inherent advantages of this method are the linear scaling of the trapping force with the particle diameter and the fact that the force is less dependent on particle properties than in the case of conventional methods.
