Recent achievements on photovoltaic optoelectronic tweezers based on lithium niobate

Abstract

This review presents an up-dated summary of the fundamentals and applications of optoelectronic photovoltaic tweezers for trapping and manipulation of nano-objects on the surface of lithium niobate crystals. It extends the contents of previous reviews to cover new topics and developments which have emerged in recent years and are marking the trends for future research. Regarding the theoretical description of photovoltaic tweezers, detailed simulations of the electrophoretic and dielectrophoretic forces acting on different crystal configurations are discussed in relation to the structure of the obtained trapping patterns. As for the experimental work, we will pay attention to the manipulation and patterning of micro-and nanoparticles that has experimented an outstanding progress and relevant applications have been reported. An additional focus is now laid on recent work about micro-droplets, which is a central topic in microfluidics and optofluidics. New developments in biology and biomedicine also constitute a relevant part of the review. Finally, some topics partially related with photovoltaic tweezers and a discussion on future prospects and challenges are included.