Monolithic integration of DUV-induced waveguides into plastic microfluidic chip for optical manipulation

A monolithic polymer optofluidic chip for manipulation of microbeads in flow is demonstrated. On this chip, polymer waveguides induced by Deep UV lithography are integrated with microfluidic channels. The optical propagation losses of the waveguides are measured to be 0.66 +/- 0.13 dB/mm at a wavelength of lambda= 808 nm. An optimized bead tracking algorithm is implemented, allowing for determination of the optical forces acting on the particles. The algorithm features a spatio-temporal mapping of coordinates for uniting partial trajectories, without increased processing time. With an external laser power of 250 mW, a maximum scattering force of 0.84 pN is achieved for 5 mu m diameter polystyrene beads in water. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.