Trapping and manipulation of nano-structured micro particles using a tapered optical fiber

Micro-arrays of functional (bio)-nanostructured particles are of high importance for the fabrication of tailored micro-devices and micro-systems. In particular, by entrapping different guest molecules within their nano-pores porous micro-sized particles, as e.g. Zeolite L crystals or diatoms, can be used for advanced hierarchical supramolecular organization or biomedical drug delivery applications, to mention a few. The fabrication of micro-devices based on these micro particles requires robust methods that enable a fine control over particle-particle and particle-substrate adhesion. An elegant strategy to address this challenge is the use of optical manipulation techniques by which transparent particles are controlled by using the momentum exchange between light and transparent particles themselves. In our contribution, we demonstrate the use of tapered single-mode optical fiber probes for optical trapping and arrangement of nano-structured micro particles. We show that this approach has the ability for both trapping and creating long, ordered chains of these micro particles which can be used simultaneously for novel biocompatible waveguiding applications.