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A noncontact bubble manipulation by an optically induced local surface tension gradient is described in this paper. In microfluidic devices, the effects of interfacial phenomena become dominant with decreasing of the length scale. An appropriate control of the local gradient of the interfacial properties can provide a powerful method for bubble handling in the microfluidic system. Here, the photothermal technique is used to induce the gradient in surface tension around a microbubble. The thermocapillary force around the bubble is induced and controlled by local laser focusing. The bubble in a microchannel filled with silicone oil with varied viscosity was examined to verify experimentally the optical manipulation method of bubbles based on the photothermal Marangoni effect. As a result, three applications of bubble manipulation by using photothermal Marangoni effect are obtained: detachment from channel wall, trapping in liquid phase, and transportation in the channel. Additionally, minimum optical power for the manipulation was evaluated. The effects of bubble size, liquid viscosity, and irradiated optical power on the manipulation characteristics can be summarized by a dimensionless number that is a ratio of the thermocapillary force to viscous drag force for the bubble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical force offers a promise of being applied as a noninvasive manipulation tool for microscopic objects without physical contact. Particle control in a microfluidic system is achieved by optics showing advantages over electric or the other methods. With optics, the fluid need not to be contamination free and there is no need for electrode fabrication. Particles can experience different forces depending on the optical configuration. The scattering force is predominant under parallel or gently focused irradiation, while the gradient force is predominant in tightly focused irradiation. This paper reports the experimental and theoretical investigations of the potential of optical scattering force for particle control technique in a microfluidic system with a light-absorbing liquid. The light-absorption of the incident laser beam in the liquid causes a temperature rise and induces the corresponding property changes of liquid and particles. The experiments were presented for particle migration using the scattering force exerted by a compact diode laser with a wavelength of 635 nm. The absorption of the light in the liquid was controlled by the concentration of dye substance added in a buffer solution. The velocities of polystyrene particles with a diameter of 1.9 pm and the temperature distributions of the liquid under laser irradiation were measured by tracking their movement and by temperature-sensitive fluorophore, respectively. When there is no light absorption in the liquid, the migration velocity of particles under the laser beam is linearly increased with the increase of the laser power, in agreement with the calculations based on ray optics theory. In the case of light-absorbing liquid, the migration speed of particles experienc-ing the optical force indicates a nonlinear increase as the laser power increases. This enhancement mainly attributes to the temperature-sensitive change of liquid viscosity resulting in a reduction of viscous drag for migrating particles. An appropriate arrange-ment of light absorption leads to an enhancement in the photophoretic velocity of par-ticles, and eventual performance promotion of particle separation andlor sorting using the optical force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate a potential of local control of the viscous force in a microfluidic device for a noncontact microflow manipulation method. Photothermal effect and temperature dependence of the liquid viscosity play a key role to induce an inhomogeneous viscosity distribution in the flow field in a microchannel. Absorption of focused laser beam generates the local change in the viscosity of liquid corresponding to the temperature change. The velocity and temperature fields are measured by the micron-resolution particle image velocimetry and laser-induced fluorescence, respectively. Measurement results indicate that the local reduction of the fluid viscosity due to the temperature rise can cause the change of the flow structure in the microchannel. At the focused area of heating laser beam, namely high temperature area, the flow velocity was increased. The accompanying fluid behavior around the heated region was also recognized. In addition, the agreement between the experimental results and numerical simulation clarifies that the primary factor for the change of the microflow structure is the locally controlled viscous force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]