Abstract

Optical manipulation and detection of nanoscale biospecimen such as organic nanoparticles, biomolecules, bacterial viruses, and subcellular nanostructures, is crucial in numerous biomedical and biological applications. Traditional lens-based free-space techniques for optical manipulation and detection are limited by their bulky systems and the inherent diffraction limit of light. Micro/nano optical fibers are promising candidates to overcome these issues because of their compact structure, flexibility, high sensitivity, and sub-diffraction-limit confinement. In this review, we focused on recent advances in nanoscale manipulation and biological detection using optical fibers, ranging from the fundamentals to applications for biological exploration, such as nanoparticle delivery and detection, single-molecule trapping and sensing, and single-cell manipulation and analysis. Different kinds of optical fibers were discussed in this review, including tapered fibers, plasmonic fibers, microlens-based fibers, nanofibers, and hollow fibers. We aim for this review to highlight current trends and future direction for applications of optical fibers for nanomanipulation and biodetection.

Particle trapping with optical nanofibers: a review [Invited]

Pramitha Praveen Kamath, Souvik Sil, Viet Giang Truong, and Síle Nic Chormaic
Biomed. Opt. Express 14(12) 6172-6189 (2023)

All-fiber label-free optical fiber biosensors: from modern technologies to current applications [Invited]

Aliya Bekmurzayeva, Marzhan Nurlankyzy, Albina Abdossova, Zhuldyz Myrkhiyeva, and Daniele Tosi
Biomed. Opt. Express 15(3) 1453-1473 (2024)

Optical fiber nano-tip and 3D bottle beam as non-plasmonic optical tweezers

Samir K. Mondal, Sudipta Sarkar Pal, and Pawan Kapur
Opt. Express 20(15) 16180-16185 (2012)

Super-low-power optical trapping of a single nanoparticle

Xiaoyun Tang, Yu Zhang, Wenjie Su, Yaxun Zhang, Zhihai Liu, Xinghua Yang, Jianzhong Zhang, Jun Yang, and Libo Yuan
Opt. Lett. 44(21) 5165-5168 (2019)

Optical-force-controlled red-blood-cell microlenses for subwavelength trapping and imaging

Xixi Chen, Heng Li, Tianli Wu, Zhiyong Gong, Jinghui Guo, Yuchao Li, Baojun Li, Pietro Ferraro, and Yao Zhang
Biomed. Opt. Express 13(5) 2995-3004 (2022)