Numerical model for analyzing the dynamics of a dielectric particle in an optical landscape

Abstract

We develop a two-dimensional numerical model to describe the dynamics of a dielectric particle in a micro-fluidic stream and under the influence of an optical landscape. The numerical model is an agent-based model with the dielectric particles considered as agents, and whose motion is discrete and restricted to grids within an arbitrary optical landscape. We verify the model using a periodic array of light spots and track the trajectory of particles with varying size and stream velocity. We show optical fractionation of dielectric particles by analyzing various system parameters such as rotation of the light spot array, speed of the fluidic stream and size of the particles.