Abstract

Optofluidics’ NanoTweezer is the first commercial system capable of directly optically trapping and analyzing nano and microscale objects in solution, ranging from plastics, to metals to oxides and which are already in wide use throughout medicine, energy and industrial materials. Our system offers the ability to analyze shape and surface properties of large numbers of individual nanoparticles without electron microscopy. Unlike traditional free space optical traps which are light diffraction limited and thus can only influence dielectric objects larger than a hundreds of nanometers in size, the NanoTweezer technology is powered by proprietary nanophotonic waveguides engineered to exert stronger optical forces via light confinement and resonance, enabling a technological leap in trapping and analysis capability. We will cover the technology’s working principles and discuss specific applications of the technology, emphasizing the system’s capabilities in nanoparticle analysis.

© 2014 Optical Society of America