A shuttlecock optical rotator-its design, fabrication and evaluation for a microfluidic mixer

Abstract

An optically driven microrotator is proposed for fluidic mixing in future micrototal analysis systems (-TAS). The rotation mechanism, optical torque and microflow around the rotator are analyzed, and the rotator is fabricatied both by photolithography and photoforming methods. The microflow fields generated by the optical rotation are then experimentally visualized by both tracer and optical methods, and the velocity vectors and flux amount around the rotator are analyzed for the evaluation of the mixing performance of the microfluids.

Optical angular momentum transfer to microrotors fabricated by two-photon photopolymerization

“…The production, trapping and rotation of such structures has been demonstrated by a number of groups around the world (Gauthier 2001, Galajda and Ormos 2001, Higurashi et al 1994, Ukita and Kanehira 2002, Ukita and Nagatomi 2003. However, what is required is the development of initial designs and their evaluation, prior to further engineering and optimization.…”

Optically driven micromachines: progress and prospects

“…However, optically-driven micromachines are already seeing use in practical applications, such as a microviscometer. [79][80][81] The development of techniques for building complex optical micromachines has been impressive, 82,83 and practical devices appear imminent.…”

Towards Efficient Modelling of Optical Micromanipulation of Complex Structures

“…Particles with these properties have also been rotated in optical traps [13,14,15,16]. As such particles can still be axisymmetric about one axis, rapid calculation of optical forces and torques is still possible [15,16] More complex particles have also been fabricated and rotated [17,18,19], but in these cases, there are few results from computational modelling [20].…”