Optical manipulation of a dielectric particle along polygonal closed-loop geometries within a single water droplet

Abstract

We report a new method to optically manipulate a single dielectric particle along closed-loop polygonal trajectories by crossing a suite of all-fiber Bessel-like beams within a single water droplet. Exploiting optical radiation pressure, this method demonstrates the circulation of a single polystyrene bead in both a triangular and a rectangle geometry enabling the trapped particle to undergo multiple circulations successfully. The crossing of the Bessel-like beams creates polygonal corners where the trapped particles successfully make abrupt turns with acute angles, which is a novel capability in microfluidics. This offers an optofluidic paradigm for particle transport overcoming turbulences in conventional microfluidic chips.