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Friday, March 4, 2011

Photothermal trapping of dielectric particles by optical fiber-ring

Hongbao Xin, Hongxiang Lei, Yao Zhang, Xingmin Li, and Baojun Li

The removal of dielectric particles and bacteria from water is an extremely important global issue, particularly, for drinking and sanitation. This work provides a demonstration of optical purification of water using an optical fiber-ring. The size of particles suspended in water for trapping is 2.08 μm in diameter and the wavelength of light used for inducing photothermal effect is 1.55 μm with a power of 97 mW. The fiber, 6 μm in diameter, was formed to a racket-shaped ring with a minimum diameter of 167 μm and a maximum one of 350 μm. Experiment indicates that the particles moved toward the ring with the highest velocity of 4.2 μm/s and are trapped/assembled in the center of the ring once the laser beam of 1.55-μm wavelength was launched into the fiber. With a moving of the fiber-ring, the trapped/assembled particles were moved and the water can be purified by removal of the particles.

DOI

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