Optofluidic devices and applications in photonics, sensing and imaging

Abstract

Optofluidics integrates the fields of photonics and microfluidics, providing new freedom to both fields and permitting the realization of optical and fluidic property manipulations at the chip scale. Optofluidics was formed only after many breakthroughs in microfluidics, as understanding of fluid behaviour at the micron level enabled researchers to combine the advantages of optics and fluids. This review describes the progress of optofluidics from a photonics perspective, highlighting various optofluidic aspects ranging from the device's property manipulation to an interactive integration between optics and fluids. First, we describe photonic elements based on the functionalities that enable fluid manipulation. We then discuss the applications of optofluidic biodetection with an emphasis on nanosensing. Next, we discuss the progress of optofluidic lenses with an emphasis on its various architectures, and finally we conceptualize on where the field may lead.

Optofluidic sorting of material chirality by chiral light

“…As chiral sorting strategies have a huge application potential, we anticipate that this study will promote further developments of the existing optofluidic toolbox 31,32 . It may also contribute to the emergence of other kinds of field-induced chiral sorting strategies more generally based on the use of angular momentum of light, be it of spin or orbital nature.…”

Optofluidic refractive index sensor based on partial reflection

“…The result confirmed that the dynamic range could be extended by using different output fibers for sensing. When RI increased from 1.35 to 1.36, the normalized intensity for the output fiber with a tilting angle of 72° decreased from 103 to 23 To further evaluate the performance of the RI sensor, aqueous cane surge solutions with different concentrations (0.1 g/mL-0.3 g/mL) were prepared and analyzed. Because the RI of the cane surge solution is in a range from 1.34 to 1.37, we adopted three output fibers with tilting angle of 71°, 72°, and 74° for collecting the signals, respectively.…”

“…The past decade has witnessed the realizations of optofluidic devices including tunable waveguides [3,4], lenses [5,6], switches [7,8], apertures [9,10], reconfigurable lasers [11,12], interferometers [13,14], gratings [15,16], and sensitive sensors with fast response and low sample consumption [17][18][19][20], as well as demonstrations of their applications in chemical and biological analysis [21], energy [22], and photonics [23]. For many biological and chemical applications, the measurement of refractive index (RI) is extremely useful for detecting compounds that are: nonionic, transparent in the UV/vis range, or with no fluorescence, moreover, it has great potential for none invasive and label-free biosensing [24][25][26].…”

Tunable on chip optofluidic laser

“…1-3 Among the various optofluidic components, the optofluidic dye laser holds great promise as a critical component in future integrated photonic systems, primarily pertaining lab on chip applications. [4][5][6] Over the last 15 years, a tremendous progress in the field of optofluidic lasers has been reported, driven by the rapid advancements in microfabrication and microfluidic technologies, alongside the growing need for lab on chip applications.…”