Speckle tweezers at fluid-fluid interface

TL;DR

This paper introduces speckle tweezers, a novel optical manipulation technique using random light fields to control micro-particles at fluid-fluid interfaces, suitable for biomedical and industrial applications.

Contribution

The study extends speckle tweezers concept for micro-particle control at fluid interfaces, demonstrating its effectiveness experimentally without requiring regular trap arrays.

Findings

Successful manipulation of micro-particles at water-oil and water-air interfaces.

Validation of technique through digital video microscopy analysis.

Potential applications in biomedical and industrial processes.

Abstract

Contemporary approaches to optical multiple micro-manipulation typically involve careful pre-engineering of the laser beam shape. In various biomedical and microfluidic scenarios, especially those necessitating unconventional specimen chambers, there is a demand for controlling the collection of micro-objects at fluid-fluid interfaces. This requirement arises in contexts such as the transport of materials across liquid interfaces for applications like living cell manipulation, drug delivery, soft functional material creation, and various industrial processes. For many of these cases, a regular array of trap sites as well as tightly confinement are not essential. For such applications at interfaces, we expand on the concept of speckle tweezers (ST), which incorporate randomly distributed light fields for quasi-2D optical manipulation. The proposed technique is demonstrated experimentally by applying ST to govern the movement of PS micro-particles at water-oil and water-air interfaces. The efficacy of the method is validated through the temporal characterization of micro-particle motions using digital video microscopy.