Laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) has been collecting much attention as a nozzle-free, cost-effective and resource-efficient printing technology for the development of printed electronic/photonic devices and bioprinting with high cell viability.
In recent years, we and our co-workers have proposed a novel LIFT technology with optical vortex possessing a helical wavefront (we called OV-LIFT) instead of a conventional Gaussian beam with a plane wavefront, which enables the high definition print of materials even with an extremely long working distance.
In our experiments, we demonstrate the 2-dimansionally direct print of cyanobacteria cells water/glycerol suspension including biocompatible materials (polyethylene glycol diacrylate) with OV-LIFT. The printed dots exhibit a diameter of approximately 50 μm with a positioning accuracy of about 6 μm. Also, we address high viability of cyanobacterial cells, as evidenced by photosynthetic activity of cyanobacterial cells in as-printed dots.
We demonstrate the laser-induced forward transfer of fluorescent liquid droplets with viscosity 100 times higher than that of water. The optical vortex allows the high-definition direct-print of uniform microdroplets with no satellite droplets at desired locations within 10% positioning error, while the Gaussian laser produces only irregular printed droplets with many undesired satellite droplets. The printed droplets act as a laser with whispering-galley-modes. We discuss the droplet formation mechanism from the viewpoint of laser-induced cavitation based on the observation with a high-speed camera.
We demonstrate single droplet formation in an ionic liquid/water mixture by optical tweezers. Upon focusing a near-infrared laser beam into the aqueous solution, a liquid droplet is formed at the focal spot. The droplet is stably trapped and increases in its size. The growth rate becomes faster at the higher laser power. The droplet has a core in its inside. The core-shell structure is confirmed by transmission and fluorescence imaging. We discuss the droplet formation dynamics from the viewpoints of optical force and local temperature elevation.
Neuronal stimulation is essential to understand information processing in brain systems. Spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity can be modified by external stimuli. Recent studies have shown that neurons can be stimulated by short-pulse laser processing of the cell membrane. An optical vortex with a helical wavefront possesses an orbital angular momentum (OAM) enables the inward twisting of ablated materials, thereby processing further precisely cells beyond a conventional Gaussian beam. We herein study the mechanisms of neuronal stimulation with a focused nanosecond optical vortex. The focused nanosecond optical vortex on the cell membrane of rat hippocampal neurons induces extracellular Ca2+ influx and neuronal activity elicitation. Morphological changes of the neuronal cell membrane due to nanosecond optical vortex irradiation is also evaluated with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. After the deposition of a single pulse of nanosecond optical vortex on the cell membrane of neurons, the fluorescence intensity of membrane probe at the focal region significantly decreases, however, it recovers within 5 seconds. Such dynamics suggests that the transient disruption occurs at the cell membrane based on laser ablation and recovers due to lateral diffusion of membrane molecules. The diffusion coefficients of membrane molecules after optical vortex irradiation are larger than those of Gaussian beam irradiation, and the disrupted membrane areas are smaller than the expected ones as the optical vortex focal region. These differences are attributed to the fact that the disruption of cell membrane owing to laser ablation and subsequent membrane diffusion are assisted by OAM transfer effects.
We demonstrate, for the first time, 2-dimensional (2D) direct print of perfect circle microdots consisting of close-packed Au nanoparticles by employing the optical vortex induced forward transfer (OV-LIFT). Going beyond the ink-jet printing technology, the OV-LIFT allows the direct print of ultrafine microdots with a diameter of ~8 μm and an ultralow positional error of <7 μm.
We demonstrate the direct print of micron-scale dots consisting of close-packed gold nanoparticles by employing the optical vortex laser-induced forward transfer technology. Moreover, SAM enhances the close-packing of gold nanoparticles in the printed dot.
We demonstrate the laser induced forward transfer of fluorescent dye solution thin films with different viscosity by employing a single 532-nm nanosecond optical vortex pulse. Upon irradiating the laser pulse, a single microdroplet is ejected from the donor film, and it is deposited onto a receiver substrate. Well-aligned microdots with the same diameter were printed on the substrate with optical vortex, whereas the production of microdots in uniform size was prevented with a conventional Gaussian beam. In addition, we demonstrate the microprinting of a number of droplets by optical vortex.
We demonstrate the laser induced forward transfer of fluorescent dye solution thin films by employing a single 532-nm nanosecond optical vortex pulse. Upon irradiating the laser pulse, a single microdroplet is ejected from the donor film, and it is forwarded onto a glass substrate a few hundreds of micrometers away from the film. The optical vortex enables us to print well-aligned microdots with the same diameter of 30 µm on the substrate, whereas a conventional Gaussian beam prevents the production of microdots in uniform size. The optical vortex laser induced forward transfer allows the development of micro-patterning of functional materials.
Optical tweezers enable the manipulation of micro-and nano dielectric particles through entrapment using a tightly
focused laser. Generally, optical trapping of sub-micron size particles requires high intensity light in the order of MW/cm2.
Here, we demonstrate a technique of stable optical trapping of submicron polymeric beads on nanostructured rare metal
surfaces (RMS) without the use of lasers. Fluorescent polymer beads with diameter d = 20 – 500 nm were successfully
trapped on the nanostructured RMS by low-intensity focused illumination of incoherent light at =370 m from a Hg lamp.
Light intensity was 5.5 W/cm2, corresponding to a reduced light intensity of 6 orders of magnitude. Upon switching off
illumination, trapped particles were released from the illuminated area, indicating that the trapping was optically driven
and reversible. The nanostructures were demonstrated to play a key role.
We demonstrate optical trapping of protein amyloid fibrils with the use of a tightly focused laser beam. Amyloid fibrils
are prepared by incubating a solution of hen egg-white lysozyme under the heating condition and characterized by atomic
force microscopy. Upon the focused laser irradiation, amyloid fibrils are attracted toward the laser focus and stably
trapped there. After switching off the laser, the trapped amyloids start diffusion to the surrounding solution. Thus, optical
force is effectively exerted on protein amyloid fibrils and useful to trap, assembly, and manipulate them.
We demonstrate the creation of a microdroplet with a plasmonic Au nanoparticle core by employing the optical vortex
laser-induced forward transfer technology. The single plasmonic nanoparticle in the microdroplet is printed as a plasmonic
nanocore on a receiver substrate with a spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit. This phenomenon manifests that the
optical vortex traps three-dimensionally only a suspended single Au nanoparticle in its dark core by its repulsive force
owing to plasmonic resonance, and it has the potential to realize a myriad of plasmonic structured materials.
We demonstrate synthesis and crystallization of lead halide perovskites under the focused laser irradiation in the unsaturated precursor solutions. Upon the irradiation onto the air/solution interface, a perovskite crystal is formed from the focal spot. The synthesized crystal collects more precursors and grows large while trapped at the focus. The formed crystal dissolves after the laser turns off, which is due to unsaturated condition of the surrounding solution. The mechanism of the crystallization is discussed from the viewpoints of laser heating and laser trapping.
We demonstrate successfully the creation of a microscale lead halide perovskite crystal by employing optical vortex laser induced forward transfer (OV-LIFT) technology. The created microscale crystals exhibit efficient visible (cyan~green~red) fluorescence with a lifetime of ~7 ns.
We conduct the optical trapping and assembling of polystyrene particles at the glass/solution interface by utilizing tightly focused 1064 nm laser of high power. Previously we reported that this leads to form the assembly sticking out horns consisting of single row of aligned particles through light propagation. Here, we demonstrate the laser power dependence of this phenomenon. With increasing the laser power, the particles are started to distribute around the focal spot and form the assembly larger than focal spot. The shape of the assembly becomes ellipse-like and the color at the central part of the assembly in transmission images is changed. This indicates that the assembly structure is changed, and trapping laser is started to propagate through the adjoining particles leading to horn formation. Strong laser power is necessary to elongate the horns and to align them straightly. We expect that this study will offer a novel experimental approach for assembling and crystallization of nanoparticles and molecules exclusively by optical trapping.
We present the laser power dependent behavior of optical trapping assembling of 208-nm polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles at the solution surface layer. The assembling dynamics is examined by reflection microspectroscopy as well as transmission and backscattering imaging. The transmission imaging shows that the laser irradiation at the solution surface layer forms a nanoparticle assembly, whose diameter becomes large with the increase in the laser power. The backscattering image of the assembly gives structural color, meaning that nanoparticles are periodically arranged over the whole assembly region. In reflection microspectroscopy, one band appears at long wavelength and is gradually shifted to the short wavelength with the irradiation. After the blue shift, the reflection band is located at the shorter wavelength under the laser irradiation at the higher power. We discuss these spectral changes from the viewpoint of the inter-particle distance determined by the dynamic balance between attractive optical force and repulsive electrostatic force among nanoparticles.
We present laser trapping behaviors of 200 nm-polystyrene particles in D2O solution and at its surface using a focused
continuous-wave laser beam of 1064 nm. Upon focusing the laser beam into the solution surface, the particles are
gathered at the focal spot, and their assembly is expanded to the outside and becomes much larger than the focal volume.
The resultant assembly is observed colored under halogen lamp illumination, which is due to a periodic structure like a
colloidal crystal. This trapping behavior is much different compared to the laser irradiation into the inside of the solution
where a particle-like assembly with a size similar to that of the focal volume is prepared. These findings provide us new
insights to consider how radiation pressure of a focused laser beam acts on nanoparticles at a solution surface.
We successfully demonstrate crystallization and crystal rotation of L-alanine in D2O solution using a focused laser beam
of 1064 nm with right- or left-handed circularly polarization. Upon focusing each laser beam into a solution/air interface
of the solution thin film, one single crystal is generally formed from the focal spot. The necessary time for the
crystallization is systematically examined against polarization and power of the trapping laser. The significant difference
in the average time is observed between two polarization directions at a relatively high laser power, where the left-handed
circularly polarized laser takes 3 times longer than the right-handed one. On the other hand, the prepared crystal
is stably trapped and rotated at the focal point by circularly polarized lasers after the crystallization, and the rotation
direction is completely controlled by the polarization of the trapping laser. The mechanisms for the crystallization and
the crystal rotation are discussed in terms of trapping force and rotation torque of circularly polarized lasers acting on the
liquid-like clusters and its bulk crystal, respectively.
A single dense liquid droplet of urea is formed by irradiating a focused continuous wave near-infrared laser beam to a
glass/solution interface of a thin film of the unsaturated D2O solution though its dynamic deformation. Conversely, in the
supersaturated solution, neither droplet formation nor large solution deformation is observed. This can be explained on
the basis of its high viscosity. In addition, crystal growth and dissolution are demonstrated by focusing the laser beam
close to the crystal generated in the solution. All results are here discussed in view of local temperature elevation, mass
transfer due to convection, and laser trapping of the clusters due to photon pressure, by comparing with experimental results for glycine.
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