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Optoelectronic tweezers: a versatile toolbox for nano-/micro-manipulation.

Shuailong Zhang^1,2,3, Bingrui Xu^1,2, Mohamed Elsayed^4,5

¹School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Room 711, Building No 6, Science and Technology Park, 5 Zhongguancun South St, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, China. shuailong.zhang@bit.edu.cn.

Chemical Society Reviews

|October 26, 2022

Summary

Optoelectronic tweezers (OET) use light and electric fields to precisely manipulate micro-objects. This review covers OET mechanisms, applications, and future potential in science and engineering.

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Area of Science:

Micro/Nanotechnology
Biophysics
Materials Science

Background:

Micromanipulation is crucial for microfabrication, cell analysis, and nano/micro-machines.
Existing techniques offer various manipulation capabilities.
Optoelectronic tweezers (OET) integrate light and electric fields using semiconductor photoconductivity.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide a comprehensive review of optoelectronic tweezers (OET) technology.
To discuss OET's working mechanisms, experimental setups, and applications.
To explore OET's commercialization and future prospects.

Main Methods:

Leveraging the photoconductive effect of semiconductor materials.
Utilizing light-induced changes in electric fields for object manipulation.
Reviewing existing research on OET principles and implementations.

Main Results:

OET enables precise, flexible, and high-throughput manipulation of nano/micro-objects.
OET offers programmability, versatility, and integration advantages.
OET has demonstrated impressive performance across diverse scientific and engineering fields.

Conclusions:

OET is a state-of-the-art micromanipulation technique with broad applicability.
The technology shows significant potential for advancements in various scientific domains.
Future research directions and commercialization opportunities for OET are promising.