Fiber-focused diode bar optical trapping for microfluidic flow manipulation

The direct integration of light and optical control into microfluidic systems presents a significant hurdle to the development of portable optical trapping-based devices. We present a simple, inexpensive fiber-based approach that allows for easy implementation of diode bars for optical particle separations within flowing microfluidic systems. We also develop models that demonstrate the advantages of manipulating particles within flow using linear geometries as opposed to individually focused point traps as traditionally employed in optical trapping micromanipulation. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.