A non-contact single optical fiber multi-optical tweezers probe: Design and fabrication

doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2012.06.025

Optics Communications

Volume 285, Issue 20, 15 September 2012, Pages 4068-4071

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2012.06.025 Get rights and content

Abstract

Optical tweezers have developed into a versatile and widely used tool; compared with the traditional optical tweezers, optical traps built with a single optical fiber provide a more flexible solution towards compact, integrated multiple traps. But the single optical tweezers have their own short comings—the manipulation working on the micro-particles is not non-contact, because of the fabrication method of the optical fiber probe. However we propose new single fiber multi-optical tweezers which are simple, low-cost and can manipulate micro-particles in a non-contact manner and non-invasively.

Introduction

Optical tweezers (OTs) have been widely used for non-contact manipulations of micro- or nano-sized particles since they were invented by Ashkin et al. in 1986 [1]. When the light from OTs is incident and deflected by the surface of an object, optical forces are applied to the object due to the photon momentum change. OTs offer powerful new possibilities to handle microscopic particles that revolutionized different areas, such as atomic physics [2] and biology [3], [4], [5]; even the study of the optical trapping itself resulted in interesting new physics [6].

There are different realizations for optical trapping, and one of the common two is the traditional optical tweezers which are based on an objective with a high N.A., and another one is optical fiber tweezers, which are based on novel optical fibers. Traditional optical tweezers are bulky, expensive, complex, and have less freedom, while the fiber optical tweezers are small and easier to operate and achieve. So in recent years, multi-fiber optical tweezers and photonic crystal fiber optical tweezers have made considerable progress [7], [8], [9]. Because of the non-contact and non-destructive operation of particles and biological cells, the optical tweezers provide a powerful tool for the bio-engineering, and also contribute to medicine, materials science and nanotechnology development.

However the multi-fibers optical tweezers have their short comings—they need multi high-precision micro-manipulators to control multi-optical fibers, which means that the cost of optical tweezers is also high. In order to solve this problem, single optical tweezers came into being. The single optical tweezers have large working distance, the system components are simple and only need one micro manipulator to trap micro-particles. But inevitably, the single optical tweezers also have their own short comings—the manipulation working on the micro-particles is not non-contact [10], [11], because of the manufacture method of the optical fiber probe.In this paper, we describe a means to fabricate a novel optical fiber tweezers probe which is based on the micro-structured multi-core optical fiber. With this new optical tweezers probe, one can trap and manipulate one or more micro-particles in a non-contact manner and non-invasively.

Section snippets

Multi-core optical fiber

The multi-core optical fiber used to fabricate a single fiber tweezers probe can be a two-core optical fiber, three-core optical fiber, four-core optical fiber, annular-distribution multi-core fiber and even annular-core optical fiber. Fig. 1 gives their profile photos. We can find out from Fig. 1 that an annular-distribution multi-core fiber with more than one core can be suitable to fabricate a single fiber multi-optical tweezers probe.

Theoretical analysis about grinding angle

In order to realize the function of trapping and

Grinding fiber probe and experiments

In the following we use the two-core fiber and the annular-core fiber as examples to demonstrate the function of this multi-core fiber optical tweezers.

Conclusions

In conclusion a real non-contact trapping micro-particles annular-distribution multi-core fiber probe fabrication approach is proposed. Both theoretical and experimental results show that these new single fiber optical tweezers with a truncated cone grinding tip can realize the real non-contact trapping and manipulating of the micro-particles immersed in fluid medium.

Compared with traditional lens optical tweezers and early multi-fibers optical tweezers, these new single fiber optical tweezers

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the 973 program (Grant no. 2010CB334701), 863 program (Grant no. 2010AA8092208) and partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 61107069, 60927008, 60877046 and 61077062), to Harbin Engineering University.

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Journal of Biomechanical Engineering
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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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A non-contact single optical fiber multi-optical tweezers probe: Design and fabrication

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Multi-core optical fiber

Theoretical analysis about grinding angle

Grinding fiber probe and experiments

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

Optics Letters

Physical Review Letters

Applied Physical Letters

Journal of Biomechanical Engineering

Journal of Optics

Optics Letters