Microoptomechanical pumps assembled and driven by holographic optical vortex arrays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the creation of reconfigurable microoptomechanical pumps using holographic optical vortex arrays that transfer photon orbital angular momentum to assemble and actuate colloidal spheres.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to assemble and drive microfluidic pumps using holographic optical vortices and photon orbital angular momentum.

Findings

Optical vortex arrays can assemble colloidal spheres into pumps.

Photon orbital angular momentum can actuate microstructures.

Reconfigurable and dynamic control of microoptomechanical systems.

Abstract

Beams of light with helical wavefronts can be focused into ring-like optical traps known as optical vortices. The orbital angular momentum carried by photons in helical modes can be transferred to trapped mesoscopic objects and thereby coupled to a surrounding fluid. We demonstrate that arrays of optical vortices created with the holographic optical tweezer technique can assemble colloidal spheres into dynamically reconfigurable microoptomechanical pumps assembled by optical gradient forces and actuated by photon orbital angular momentum.