Microphotonics

The main activities of the group are targeted to the advanced exploitation  of lasers of which beams can be focused to the spot of a size as small as a few micrometers.  The main researched topics are as follows:

 

  •  Optical forces are used for trapping, manipulation, rotation, sorting, levitation, and sorting of micrometer and nanometer objects according to their size (including living cells) in liquids or vacuum.
  •  Spectral characteristics of scattered light are exploited using Raman spectroscopy in order to characterize  chemical composition of samples (mainly for living organisms)
  •  Energy density of the laser beam  is used for two photon polymerization to create microstructures (with details as low as 100 nm) from photopolymers
  •  Minimalization of the sample  volumes used for light interaction so that better spatial resolution  and faster acquisition of data in  analytical optical methods is achieved  - e.g. for monitoring of biochemical processes in droplets.  This also contributes to the imaging techniques such as holographic fiber endoscopy.

 

We are currently dealing with following issues:

 

  •  Levitation and cooling of nano and microobjects in vacuum to experimentaly describe transitient boundary between classical and quantum physics so that our findings can be used in emerging quantum technologies.
  •  Self-arrangement of the objects to opticaly  bind structures so that light can create functional microstructures
  •  Characterization of polymer production in living microorganisms to optimize their cultivation conditions
  • Characterization of bacterial and yeast colonies as well as   single cells using Raman spectroscopy. This in turn enables characterization of different species in a few  minutes and cells reaction to antibiotics on the order of hours
  • Optical monitoring of biochemical reactions in optofluidic systems to optimize chemical reaction parameters for biotechnological productivity enhancement
  • Holographical fibre imaging for in-vivo exploitation in endoscopes with the thickness of about the width of the human hair

 

Significant results obtained:

 

  • First experimental demonstration of the Tractor beam and its use for transportation, sorting and self-arrangement of microobjects
  • Different methods based on optical sorting according to the size of the objects
  • Characterization of lipids in algae cells for  on-line sorting
  • Demonstration of one and multi–dimensional self-arrangement of microobjects in laser beam
  • Optical conveyor belt
  • Compact optical tweezers (on market supplied by Meopta company)