TITLE:
Controlling the Flow of Microscopic Particles—The Role of Beam Size
AUTHORS:
Jitendra Bhatt, Ashok Kumar, Saiyed Nisar Ali Jaaffrey, Ravindra Pratap Singh
KEYWORDS:
Optical Manipulation; Optical Tweezers; Directional Flow
JOURNAL NAME:
Optics and Photonics Journal,
Vol.2 No.4,
December
28,
2012
ABSTRACT:
Flow of micro particles and fluids is important in many microscopic
systems. Here we present details of our finding of a directional flow of micro
particles due to a single beam optical trap. It was found that the directional
flow depends upon the size of optical trap, the number density of particles in
the solution and the time after the trap was created. We suggest controlling
the motion of microscopic particles in a fluid by varying a simple parameter
like beam size for microfluidics applications.