Optical tweezing of microparticles and cells using silicon-photonics-based optical phased arrays

Tal Sneh, Sabrina Corsetti, Milica Notaros, Kruthika Kikkeri, Joel Voldman and Jelena Notaros ()
Additional contact information
Tal Sneh: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sabrina Corsetti: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Milica Notaros: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kruthika Kikkeri: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Joel Voldman: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jelena Notaros: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Integrated optical tweezers have the potential to enable highly-compact, low-cost, mass-manufactured, and broadly-accessible optical manipulation when compared to standard bulk-optical tweezers. However, integrated demonstrations to date have been fundamentally limited to micron-scale standoff distances and, often, passive trapping functionality, making them incompatible with many existing applications and significantly limiting their utility, especially for biological studies. In this work, we demonstrate optical trapping and tweezing using an integrated OPA for the first time, increasing the standoff distance of integrated optical tweezers by over two orders of magnitude compared to prior demonstrations. First, we demonstrate trapping of polystyrene microspheres 5 mm above the surface of the chip and calibrate the trap force. Next, we show tweezing of polystyrene microspheres in one dimension by non-mechanically steering the trap by varying the input laser wavelength. Finally, we use the OPA tweezers to demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first cell experiments using single-beam integrated optical tweezers, showing controlled deformation of mouse lymphoblast cells. This work introduces a new modality for integrated optical tweezers, significantly expanding their utility and compatibility with existing applications, especially for biological experiments.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52273-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-52273-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52273-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().