We introduce Optofluidic PlasmonIC (OPtIC) microlenses to overcome the shortcomings of existing optical chromatography techniques by eliminating the need for sophisticated instrumentation and pre- cise alignment requirements. Our sub-wavelength thick (~200 nm thick) OPtIC microlenses offer objective-free focusing and self-alignment of optical and fluidic drag forces and present a facile platform for selective separation of exosome size bioparticles. By allowing direct coupling of collimated broadband light to realize strong optical scattering forces at a focal point, extremely small footprint (4 μm × 4 μm) OPtIC microlenses open the door for drastically multiplexed optical chromatography and high-throughput sample processing capability.
We introduce a subwavelength thick (~ 200 nm) plasmofluidic microlens that effortlessly achieves objective-free focusing and self-alignment of opposing optical scattering and fluidic drag forces for selective separation of exosome size bioparticles. Our optofluidic microlens provides a self-collimating mechanism for particle trajectories with a spatial dispersion that is inherently minimized by the optical gradient and radial fluidic drag forces. We demonstrate that this facile platform facilitates complete separation of small size bioparticles (i.e., exosomes) from a heterogenous mixture through negative depletion and provides a robust selective separation capability based on differences in chemical composition (refractive index). Unlike existing optical chromatography techniques that require complicated instrumentation (lasers, objectives and precise alignment stages), our platform open up the possibility of multiplexed and high-throughput sorting of nanoparticles on a chip.
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