Unified Simulation Platform for Optical Tweezers and Optofluidic Force Induction

Abstract

Optical tweezers utilize the forces exerted by focused laser beams to trap particles. In optofluidic force induction (OF2i), the forces exerted by a weakly focused laser beam trap particles in the transverse directions and push them in the laser propagation direction, which can be utilized for optical nanoparticle characterization with single-particle sensitivity. Here, we present a unified approach for the simulation of nanoparticles propagating in the presence of fluidic and optical forces, which can be used for both optical tweezers and OF2i simulations. We demonstrate the working principle at a number of selected examples and provide the simulation software as an add-on to our generic Maxwell solver NANOBEM that is based on a boundary element method approach.