Optofluidic Trapping and Transport Using Optically Resonant and Non Resonant Structures

Recently, we have demonstrated the ability to perform optically driven trapping and transport of dielectric nanoparticles using the electromagnetic energy in the evanescent field of an optically excited microphotonic waveguide. The advantage of such structures is that they allow us to condense the optical energy down to extremely small cross sectional areas (on the order of 1μm²) while simultaneously applying the impulse over indefinitely long distances (as much as several centimeters). Ultimately however both the trapping stability and transport velocity of such systems are limited by the amount of optical energy coupled into the system. In this work we review of past work and present our new work demonstrating on the use of optically resonant structures to trap and transport particles. As will be shown optically resonant structures can locally amplify the amount of electromagnetic energy, thereby enabling faster transport and greater trapping stability.