Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurface

Abstract Manipulating fluids by light at the micro/nanoscale has been a long-sought-after goal for lab-on-a-chip applications. Plasmonic heating has been demonstrated to control microfluidic dynamics due to the enhanced and confined light absorption from the intrinsic losses of metals. Dielectrics,...

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Main Authors: Sen Yang, Justus C. Ndukaife
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2023-07-01
Series:Light: Science & Applications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01212-4
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author Sen Yang
Justus C. Ndukaife
author_facet Sen Yang
Justus C. Ndukaife
author_sort Sen Yang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Manipulating fluids by light at the micro/nanoscale has been a long-sought-after goal for lab-on-a-chip applications. Plasmonic heating has been demonstrated to control microfluidic dynamics due to the enhanced and confined light absorption from the intrinsic losses of metals. Dielectrics, the counterpart of metals, has been used to avoid undesired thermal effects due to its negligible light absorption. Here, we report an innovative optofluidic system that leverages a quasi-BIC-driven all-dielectric metasurface to achieve subwavelength scale control of temperature and fluid motion. Our experiments show that suspended particles down to 200 nanometers can be rapidly aggregated to the center of the illuminated metasurface with a velocity of tens of micrometers per second, and up to millimeter-scale particle transport is demonstrated. The strong electromagnetic field enhancement of the quasi-BIC resonance increases the flow velocity up to three times compared with the off-resonant situation by tuning the wavelength within several nanometers range. We also experimentally investigate the dynamics of particle aggregation with respect to laser wavelength and power. A physical model is presented and simulated to elucidate the phenomena and surfactants are added to the nanoparticle colloid to validate the model. Our study demonstrates the application of the recently emerged all-dielectric thermonanophotonics in dealing with functional liquids and opens new frontiers in harnessing non-plasmonic nanophotonics to manipulate microfluidic dynamics. Moreover, the synergistic effects of optofluidics and high-Q all-dielectric nanostructures hold enormous potential in high-sensitivity biosensing applications.
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spelling doaj.art-bb1d27172d4241c1b98d5c13c72578e32023-07-30T11:25:04ZengNature Publishing GroupLight: Science & Applications2047-75382023-07-0112111110.1038/s41377-023-01212-4Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurfaceSen Yang0Justus C. Ndukaife1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt UniversityDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt UniversityAbstract Manipulating fluids by light at the micro/nanoscale has been a long-sought-after goal for lab-on-a-chip applications. Plasmonic heating has been demonstrated to control microfluidic dynamics due to the enhanced and confined light absorption from the intrinsic losses of metals. Dielectrics, the counterpart of metals, has been used to avoid undesired thermal effects due to its negligible light absorption. Here, we report an innovative optofluidic system that leverages a quasi-BIC-driven all-dielectric metasurface to achieve subwavelength scale control of temperature and fluid motion. Our experiments show that suspended particles down to 200 nanometers can be rapidly aggregated to the center of the illuminated metasurface with a velocity of tens of micrometers per second, and up to millimeter-scale particle transport is demonstrated. The strong electromagnetic field enhancement of the quasi-BIC resonance increases the flow velocity up to three times compared with the off-resonant situation by tuning the wavelength within several nanometers range. We also experimentally investigate the dynamics of particle aggregation with respect to laser wavelength and power. A physical model is presented and simulated to elucidate the phenomena and surfactants are added to the nanoparticle colloid to validate the model. Our study demonstrates the application of the recently emerged all-dielectric thermonanophotonics in dealing with functional liquids and opens new frontiers in harnessing non-plasmonic nanophotonics to manipulate microfluidic dynamics. Moreover, the synergistic effects of optofluidics and high-Q all-dielectric nanostructures hold enormous potential in high-sensitivity biosensing applications.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01212-4
spellingShingle Sen Yang
Justus C. Ndukaife
Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurface
Light: Science & Applications
title Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurface
title_full Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurface
title_fullStr Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurface
title_full_unstemmed Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurface
title_short Optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all-dielectric quasi-BIC metasurface
title_sort optofluidic transport and assembly of nanoparticles using an all dielectric quasi bic metasurface
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01212-4
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