Faster optical delivery of self-arranged multi-particle cluster

摘要

Rectification of random motion of particle a motional array of optical traps created by interference of twocounter-propagating evanescent waves, i.e. in a so called optical conveyor belt (OCB), leads to the directed andcontrolled motion of such a particle. Particle clusters are formed if more than one particle enters the OCB.The particles were optically self-arranged into a linear chain with well-separated distances between them. Weobserved a significant increase in the delivery speed of the whole structure as the number of particles in the chainincreased. This could provide faster sample delivery in microfluidic systems. We quantified the contributions tothe speed enhancement caused by the optical and hydrodynamical interactions between the particles.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.