The flourishing field of light-powered micro/nanorotors provides promising strategies for manufacturing and biomedical needs. However, the torque of optical rotors typically arises from the momentum exchange with photons, which limits the geometries and materials of objects that can be rotated and requires intense laser beams with designed intensity profile and polarization. These factors inhibit the light-powered rotation of highly symmetric or isotropic targets. Herein, we developed an optothermal micro/nanorotors platform that enables the rotation of various colloids with diverse sizes, materials, and various shapes, including live cells and micro/nanoparticles with high symmetry and isotropy. The long-sought-after out-of-plane rotation has been achieved by a single plane-polarized Gaussian laser beam with an ultralow power. This simple rotor approach is foreseen to open new horizons in colloidal and life sciences by offering a non-invasive and universal manipulation.
Through innovative management of light, heat and electric field in opto-thermoplasmonic fluidics, we have developed a micro/nanorobot platform for versatile manipulation of variable synthetic micro/nanoparticles and biological cells. Five manipulation modes have been achieved and can be switched on-demand. High-throughput self-navigation of micro/nanorobots has been realized with feedback control. The multimodal and nanoscale manipulation enables in situ single-cell characterizations to achieve high-resolution 3D cellular imaging and membrane protein profiling with simple and low-power optics. With the superior functionalities and user-friendliness, our micro/nanorobot technique will become a powerful tool in colloid science, life sciences, and nanotechnology.
We have developed a versatile optothermal microrobot platform that enables low-power optical manipulations of variable synthetic particles and biological cells. An Internet-based interface has been developed to allow user(s) to manipulate the microrobots from their smartphones, laptops and desktops from anywhere at any time, enabling connected workspaces for anywhere productivity. Five manipulation modes (i.e., rotating, rolling, pushing, pulling and braking) have been achieved, which can be switched on-demand for the variable tasks. The multimodal and nanoscale manipulation of the robots enables in situ single-cell characterizations to achieve three-dimensional cellular imaging and membrane protein profiling.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.