Optical microfluidics

Journal Article · Mon Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2004 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1797538· OSTI ID:20634303

Kotz, K T; Noble, K A; Faris, G W ^[1]

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1. Molecular Physics Laboratory, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States)

We present a method for the control of small droplets based on the thermal Marangoni effect using laser heating. With this approach, droplets covering five orders of magnitude in volume ({approx}1.7 {mu}L to 14 pL), immersed in decanol, were moved on an unmodified polystyrene surface, with speeds of up to 3 mm/s. When two droplets were brought into contact, they spontaneously fused and rapidly mixed in less than 33 ms. This optically addressed microfluidic approach has many advantages for microfluidic transport, including exceptional reconfigurability, low intersample contamination, large volume range, extremely simple substrates, no electrical connections, and ready scaling to large arrays.

• OSTI ID: 20634303
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 85, Issue 13; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1797538; (c) 2004 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CONTAMINATION
CONTROL
CONVECTION
DECANOLS
DROPLETS
LASER-RADIATION HEATING
POLYSTYRENE
SUBSTRATES
SURFACE ENERGY
SURFACE TENSION
SURFACES
VELOCITY