Creating optical centrifuge for rapid optical clearing and separation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel optical centrifuge driven by transverse phase gradients in holographic optical tweezers, enabling rapid particle clearing and sorting with high speed and flexibility.

Contribution

The study presents a new optical centrifuge design utilizing lateral optical forces, demonstrating its effectiveness in optical clearing and sorting of nanoparticles.

Findings

Centrifuge velocity reaches 120 μm/s in optical clearing.

Effective sorting demonstrated with Au and polystyrene nanoparticles.

The device offers rapid, flexible, and easy-to-control optical manipulation.

Abstract

Optical centrifuge has emerged as a promising tool for achieving centrifuge motion of particles in many fields. Herein, we report a novel optical centrifuge, as driven by optical lateral force arising from transverse phase gradient of light in holographic optical tweezers. It has remarkable advantages, including rapid speed, small footprint, flexible design and easy control. The optical clearing and sorting as application examples have been experimentally demonstrated by using Au and polystyrene nanoparticles. The results show that the optical centrifuge exhibits excellent performance, while used as optical clearing and optical sorting. For instance, its centrifuge velocity in optical clearing can reach its peak speed of 120 {\mu}m/s in a short time, which is highly desirable for optical manipulation of various particles in microfluidic systems. This study opens a way for realizing novel functions of optical manipulation including optical clearing and optical sorting.