Optical chromatography using a photonic crystal fiber with on-chip fluorescence excitation

Opt Express. 2010 Mar 15;18(6):6396-407. doi: 10.1364/OE.18.006396.

Abstract

We describe the realization of integrated optical chromatography, in conjunction with on-chip fluorescence excitation, in a monolithically fabricated poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip. The unique endlessly-single-mode guiding property of the Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) facilitates simultaneous on-chip delivery of beams to perform optical sorting in conjunction with fluorescence excitation. We use soft lithography to define the chip and insert the specially capped PCF into it through a predefined fiber channel that is intrinsically aligned with the sorting channel. We compare the performance of the system to a standard ray optics model and use the system to demonstrate both size-driven and refractive index-driven separations of colloids. Finally we demonstrate a new technique of enhanced optofluidic separation of biological particles, by sorting of human kidney embryonic cells (HEK-293), internally tagged with fluorescing microspheres through phagocytocis, from those without microspheres and the separation purity is monitored using fluorescence imaging.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography / instrumentation*
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Fiber Optic Technology / instrumentation*
  • Flow Injection Analysis / instrumentation*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Photons
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence / instrumentation*