Mass-manufacturable polymer microfluidic device for dual fiber optical trapping

Diane De Coster, Heidi Ottevaere, Michael Vervaeke, Jürgen Van Erps, Manly Callewaert, Pieter Wuytens, Stephen H. Simpson, Simon Hanna, Wim De Malsche, Hugo Thienpont

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present a microfluidic chip in Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) for optical trapping of particles in an 80μm wide microchannel using two counterpropagating single-mode beams. The trapping fibers are separated from the sample fluid by 70μm thick polymer walls. We calculate the optical forces that act on particles flowing in the microchannel using wave optics in combination with non-sequential ray-tracing and further mathematical processing. Our results are compared with a theoretical model and the Mie theory. We use a novel fabrication process that consists of a premilling step and ultraprecision diamond tooling for the manufacturing of the molds and double-sided hot embossing for replication, resulting in a robust microfluidic chip for optical trapping. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, we show the trapping capabilities of the hot embossed chip by trapping spherical beads with a diameter of 6μm, 8μm and 10μm and use the power spectrum analysis of the trapped particle displacements to characterize the trap strength.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)30991-31009
Number of pages19
JournalOptics Express
Volume23
Issue number24
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

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