Miniaturized Metalens Based Optical Tweezers on Liquid Crystal Droplets for Lab-on-a-Chip Optical Motors

Switchable optical trapping based on vortex-pair beams generated by a polarization-multiplexed dielectric metasurface

Optical trapping is a state-of-the-art methodology that plays an integral role in manipulating and investigating microscopic objects but faces formidable challenges in multiparticle trapping, flexible manipulation, and high-integration applications. In this study, we propose and demonstrate a switchable optical scheme for trapping microparticles incorporating disparate vortex-pair beams generated by a polarization-multiplexed metasurface. The miniaturized all-dielectric metasurface, which comprises an array of titanium dioxide nanoposts, was manufactured and characterized to provide polarization-tuned two-fold vortex-pair beams. The profiles of the created vortices can be flexibly tailored by adjusting the combination of topological charges and the separation among phase singularities. Under transverse electric polarized light conditions, a vortex-pair beam with opposite topological charge combinations traps a single microparticle within one beam spot, while under transverse magnetic polarization conditions, two microparticles are captured simultaneously by a vortex-pair beam with the same topological charge signs. The proposed switchable trapping scheme (incorporating a vortex-pair light beam) is expected to feature enhanced integration and flexible manipulation of multiple particles with potential applications in biophysics, nanotechnology, and photonics.

Manipulation force analysis of nanoparticles with ultra-high numerical aperture metalens

Metalens optical tweezers technology has several advantages for manipulating micro-nano particles and high integration. Here, we used particle swarm optimization (PSO) to design a novel metalens tweezer, which can get 3-dimensional trapping of particles. The numerical aperture (NA) of the metalens can reach 0.97 and the average focusing efficiency is 44%. Subsequently, we analyzed the optical force characteristics of SiO₂ particles with a radius of 350 nm at the focal point of the achromatic metalens. We found the average maximum force of SiO₂ particles in the x-direction and z-direction to be 0.88 pN and 0.72 pN, respectively. Compared with the dispersive metalens, it is beneficial in maintaining the constant of optical force, the motion state of trapped particles, and the stability of the trapping position.

Experimental demonstration of optical trapping and manipulation with multifunctional metasurface

Chip-scale optical tweezers, which are usually implemented in a planar format without using bulky diffractive optical elements, are recognized as a promising candidate to be integrated with a lab-on-a-chip system. However, traditional chip-scale optical tweezers are often static and allow for only one type of manipulation functionality since the geometrical parameters of the tweezers are fixed. Herein, we introduce a new, to the best of our knowledge, class of on-chip optical tweezers for diverse types of manipulation of micro-particles. Utilizing both the propagation phase and Pancharatnam-Berry phase, we experimentally demonstrate the spin-dependent trapping, moving, and circling of micro-particles with the transfer of optical gradient force and orbital angular momentum to particles. We further show that the spin angular momentum of the output beam provides an additional degree of freedom to control the spinning rotation of particles. This new type of optical tweezers paves the way for multifunctional and dynamical trapping and manipulation of particles with a lab-on-a-chip system.