Nanomixing Scheme (Left) and Radial Separation of Nanoparticles (Right) (IMAGE)
Caption
An artistic view of the proposed active nanomixing scheme (left) and radial separation of nanoparticles (right). a) A silicon nanocube submerged in a water solution is illuminated by a circularly polarized laser beam coming from the top. The scattered field carries a nonzero tangential component of the pointing vector in the xy plane, which induces nonzero orbital angular momentum in the negative z direction. The same effect causes the spiral motion of Au nanoparticles around the nanocube. Viscous friction between the moving nanoparticles and the fluid gives rise to convective fluid motion and enhances fluid mixing. b) Sorting concept. Nanoparticles of different sizes having opposite signs of the real part of polarizability are radially displaced in opposite directions--the smaller ones move toward the nanocube, while larger ones move away from it.
Credit
Advanced Science, Nanovortex-Driven All-Dielectric Optical Diffusion Boosting and Sorting Concept for Lab-on-a-Chip Platforms
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