Acoustic tweezers and motor for living cells

Abstract

Acoustic waves can act as tweezers to trap and rotate particles without contact, which have promising application in the manipulation of tissues and living cells. Here, we report a realization of acoustic tweezers and motor. The device is fabricated on a silicon chip scaled to manipulate living cells. The silicon chip transfers incident plane ultrasonic waves into a vortex beam, which traps particles in the center of the device and exerts torque on the particles simultaneously. As an illustration, we put living shrimp eggs inside the acoustic vortex and observe the acoustic driving rotation. The rotation frequency of the shrimp egg can be easily controlled, and its relationship between driving voltage and the egg size is established. We anticipate that the acoustic tweezers and motor can find widespread applications in cell manipulation, cell screening, and micro actuator in the future.