Abstract

Lipid vesicles (liposomes) are structurally similar to many important biological particles, and have applications ranging from drug delivery to studies of cell dynamics. Optical manipulation of these important nanoparticles adds to the toolbox which can be used for such applications, but is notoriously difficult due to the low index contrast of the particles. Here, we demonstrate optical trapping of lipid vesicles near to a thin optical fiber (optical nanofiber) and, in particular, relative to the fiber axis itself. This “complete” optical trapping allows the reversible localization of liposomes along the fiber and may be applied to all-fiber optical analysis of size-selected isolation of liposomes and liposome-like bio-particles in the future.

© 2023 The Author(s)