Abstract

Research into the Use of Optofluidics to Manipulate Light and Liquid

Ai Qun Liu, Professor, Nanyang Technological University

There is significant research in the field of manipulation and sorting of small size particles and molecules with dimensions of tens to hundreds of nanometers in a microfluidic chip. Opto-fluidic-force aims to manipulate light and fluid at micro- and nano-scale and exploit their interaction to create highly versatile devices that have significant scientific interests in many areas. The novelties of the integrated opto-fluidic-force are two-fold. First, fluids can be used to carry substances for analysis in highly sensitive optical micro-devices. Second, fluids can also be exploited to control light, making them tunable, reconfigurable and adaptive. It is a new breakthrough research area that provides new solutions and opportunities for a wide range of traditional micro-/nano-particle and molecule sorting, manipulation and detection by using opto-fluidic-force manipulation. Also, this new innovation allows scientists and researchers to tackle many classical problems with new tools and new research ideas. In this talk, the state-of-the-art of opto-fluidic-force research is reviewed with breakthrough innovations in nano-particle and molecule sorting, manipulation and detection etc. and may lead to new applications in a single molecule sorting, maipulation and imaging.