Optical Manipulation along an Optical Axis with a Polarization Sensitive Meta-Lens

The ability to manipulate small objects with focused laser beams opens a broad spectrum of opportunities in fundamental and applied studies, for which precise control over mechanical path and stability is required. Although conventional optical tweezers are based on refractive optics, the development of compact trapping devices that could be integrated within fluid cells is in high demand. Here, a plasmonic polarization-sensitive metasurface-based lens, embedded within a fluid, is demonstrated to provide several stable trapping centers along the optical axis. The position of a particle is controlled with the polarization of the incident light, interacting with plasmonic nanoscale patch antennas, organized within overlapping Fresnel zones of the lens. While standard diffractive optical elements face challenges in trapping objects in the axial direction outside the depth of focus, bifocal Fresnel meta-lens demonstrates the capability to manipulate a bead along a 4 μm line. An additional fluorescent module, incorporated within the optical trapping setup, was implemented and enabled the accurate mapping of optical potentials via a particle-tracking algorithm. Auxiliary micro- and nanostructures, integrated within fluidic devices, provide numerous opportunities to achieve flexible optomechanical manipulation, including transport, trapping, and sorting, which are in high demand for lab-on-a-chip applications and many others.