Simultaneously delivering specificity, high throughput, and sensitivity has been one of the long-sought goals in label-free all-optical approaches. Particularly in the context of sensing, accurate characterisation of heterogeneous nanoparticle populations demands methods that comply with these three key properties at the single particle level. Nevertheless, this poses a significant challenge to date simply because the smaller the size of a particle, the greater the demand on sensitivity, which usually is paid in the currency of throughput. Similarly, the greater the number of markers used to provide specificity, the lower the throughput. Here, I will introduce a series of optofluidic platforms developed in the group that uniquely fingerprint heterogeneous nanoparticle suspensions by integrating digital holographic microscopy with microfluidics and surface chemistry.
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