A microfluidic device for rapid concentration of particles in continuous flow by DC dielectrophoresis

This article presents a microfluidic device (so called concentrator) for rapid and efficient concentration of micro/nanoparticles using direct current dielectrophoresis (DC DEP) in continuous fluid flow. The concentrator is composed of a series of microchannels constructed with PDMS-insulating microstructures to focus efficiently the electric field in the flow direction to provide high field strength and gradient. Multiple trapping regions are formed within the concentrator. The location of particle trapping depends on the strength of the electric field applied. Under the experimental conditions, both streaming movement and DEP trapping of particles simultaneously take place within the concentrator at different regions. The former occurs upstream and is responsible for continuous transport of the particles, whereas the latter occurs downstream and rapidly traps the particles delivered from upstream. The observation agrees with the distribution of the simulated electric field and DEP force. The performance of the device is demonstrated by successfully and effectively concentrating fluorescent nanoparticles. At the sufficiently high electric field, the device demonstrates a trapping efficiency of 100%, which means downstream DEP traps and concentrates all (100%) the incoming particles from upstream. The trapping efficiency of the device is further studied by measuring the fluorescence intensity of concentrated particles in the channel. Typically, the fluorescence intensity becomes saturated in Trap 1 by applying the voltage (400 V) for >2 min, demonstrating that rapid concentration of the nanoparticles (10⁷ particles/ml) is achieved in the device. The microfluidic concentrator described can be implemented in applications where rapid concentration of targets is needed such as concentrating cells for sample preparation and concentrating molecular biomarkers for detection.     

Analytical formulation of electric field and dielectrophoretic force for moving dielectrophoresis using Fourier series

Electrokinetics manipulation and separation of living cells employing microfluidic devices require good knowledge of the strength and distribution of electric field in such devices. AC dielectrophoresis is performed by generating non-uniform electric field using microsize electrodes. Among the several applications of dielectrophoretic phenomenon, this present study considers the recently introduced phenomenon of moving dielectrophoresis. An analytical solution using Fourier series is presented for the electric field distribution and dielectrophoretic force generated inside a microchannel. The potential at the upper part of the microchannel has been found by solving the governing equation of the electric potential with specific boundary conditions. The solutions for the electric field and dielectrophoretic force show excellent agreement with the numerical results. Microdevices were fabricated and experiments were carried out with living cells confirming and validating the analytical solutions.     

Creation of single-particle environment by positive dielectrophoresis and liquid dielectrophoresis

Two electrical mechanisms for manipulating particles and fluids, dielectrophoresis (DEP) and liquid dielectrophoresis (LDEP), are integrated in a microfluidic chip for creating the single-particle environment. The fluid is activated by LDEP with a 100-kHz/240-V_pp signal. When the single polystyrene bead approaches the trapping area, positive DEP force is utilized to capture and immobilize the bead. After trapping the bead, the process of liquid cutting and droplet creation is employed to create a droplet containing a single bead by LDEP with a 100-kHz/320-V_pp signal.     

Trapping of cells by insulator-based dielectrophoresis using open-top microstructures

The ability to manipulate biological cells is a fundamental need of many biological and medical applications. Insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP) trapping involves the use of insulating structures that squeeze the electric field in a conductive solution to create a nonuniform electric field. In this work, a microchip was designed and fabricated for iDEP trapping with open-top microstructures. Microelectrodes were deposited on the substrate and the voltage required was minimized by reducing the distance between them. Human carcinoma (HeLa) cells were trapped under different frequencies to demonstrate the usability of the present microchip. Negative and positive dielectrophoresis (DEP) of cells were observed at low and high frequencies, respectively. The open-top microstructures are suitable for trapping cells and biological samples that can then easily undergo further treatment, such as culturing or contact detection. Since the cover is absent in open-top microstructures, there is no interference in the intensity of the emitted light during fluorescent detection. Furthermore, the Joule heat, which is generated by the application of high voltage in the open-top microstructure, can be dissipated more effectively.     

Bistable SmA liquid‐crystal display driven by a two‐direction electric field

Abstract— A new operation mode of a bistable smectic A (SmA) display using two sets of electrodes, one without specific features to induce homeotropic orientation of the director and the other with an in‐plane pattern to induce planar orientation of the director, has been demonstrated. Both statements of the director orientation are the stable states of SmA liquid crystals. Compared with the electrical addressing mode of a conventional SmA display, the SmA display mode presented in this study exhibits a high contrast ratio, excellent bistability, and reasonably fast switching under the employment of two crossed polarizers. Moreover, gray level can be achieved by regulating the frequency, owing to the formation of the focal‐conic defect. This operation mode of a bistable SmA device demonstrated great potential for the further application in flexible displays.     

Polarization‐independent blue‐phase liquid‐crystal gratings driven by vertical electric field

Abstract— A blue‐phase liquid‐crystal grating is proposed by applying a vertical electric field with lateral periodic distribution. Simulation on electric‐field distribution was also carried out, the results of which suggest the alternation of isotropic and ordinary refractive indices in the lateral direction. Through the electrode configuration design, both 1 D and 2D gratings were demonstrated with high transmittance of ca. 85%. The diffraction efficiency of the first order reached up to 38.7% and 1 7.8% for the 1D and 2D cases, respectively. The field‐induced fast phase modulation permits a rapid switching of diffraction orders down to the submillisecond scale.     

Simultaneous measurement of dissolved oxygen concentration and velocity field in microfluidics using oxygen-sensitive particles

This paper reports a technique for measuring the velocity and dissolved oxygen concentration (DOC) fields simultaneously in a micro-scale water flow using oxygen-sensitive particles (OSP) and a conventional microparticle image velocimetry method. The OSP were fabricated using a dispersion polymerization method by synthesizing platinum (II) octaethyporphyrin (PtOEP) with polystyrene, and used as tracer particles and oxygen sensors. An ultraviolet light-emitting diode with a wavelength of 385 nm was used as the excitation light source, and phosphorescence images of OSP were captured on a CMOS high-speed camera. The interrogation window concept was used to measure the DOC in water from the dispersed phosphorescence intensity distribution of OSP. The Stern–Volmer equations in the interrogation windows were obtained from in situ calibration. Water containing OSP with DOC values of 0 and 100 % were injected into a Y-shaped microchannel using a double loading syringe pump. The velocity and DOC field over the entire channel area were quantified.     

Experimental observations of bands of suspended colloidal particles subject to shear flow and steady electric field

Manipulating suspended colloidal particles flowing through a microchannel is of interest in microfluidics and nanotechnology. However, the flow itself can affect the dynamics of these suspended particles via wall-normal “lift” forces. The near-wall dynamics of particles suspended in shear flow and subject to a dc electric field was quantified in combined Poiseuille and EO flow through a?~?30 μm deep channel. When the two flows are in opposite directions, the particles are attracted to the wall. They then assemble into very high aspect ratio structures, or concentrated streamwise “bands,” above a minimum electric field magnitude, and, it appears, a minimum near-wall shear rate. These bands only exist over the few micrometers next to the wall and are roughly periodic in the cross-stream direction, although there are no external forces along this direction. Experimental observations and dimensional analysis of the time for the first band to form and the number of bands over a field of view of ~?200 μm are presented for dilute suspensions of polystyrene particles over a range of particle radii, concentrations, and zeta potentials. To our knowledge, there is no theoretical explanation for band assembly, but the results presented here demonstrate that it occurs over a wide range of different particle and flow parameters.     

Non-Markovian dynamics of quantum coherence of two-level system driven by classical field

In this paper, we study the quantum coherence dynamics of two-level atom system embedded in non-Markovian reservoir in the presence of classical driving field. We analyze the influence of memory effects, classical driving, and detuning on the quantum coherence. It is found that the quantum coherence has different behaviors in resonant case and non-resonant case. In the resonant case, in stark contrast with previous results, the strength of classical driving plays a negative effect on quantum coherence, while detuning parameter has the opposite effect. However, in non-resonant case through a long time, classical driving and detuning parameter have a different influence on quantum coherence compared with resonant case. Due to the memory effect of environment, in comparison with Markovian regime, quantum coherence presents vibrational variations in non-Markovian regime. In the resonant case, all quantum coherence converges to a fixed maximum value; in the non-resonant case, quantum coherence evolves to different stable values. For zero-coherence initial states, quantum coherence can be generated with evolution time. Our discussions and results should be helpful in manipulating and preserving the quantum coherence in dissipative environment with classical driving field.     

Adaptive active contour model driven by image data field for image segmentation with flexible initialization

In this paper, a novel adaptive active contour model based on image data field for image segmentation with robust and flexible initializations is proposed. We firstly construct a new external energy term deduced from the image data field that drives the level set function to move in the opposite direction along the boundaries of object and an adaptive length regularization term based on the image local entropy. The designed external energy and length regularization term are then incorporated into a variationlevel set framework with an additional penalizing energy term. Due to the adaptive sign–changing property of the external energy and the adaptive length regularization term, the proposed model can tackle images with clutter background and noise, the level set function can be initialized as any bounded functions (e.g., constant function), which implies the proposed model is robust to initialization of contours. Experimental results on both synthetic and real images from different modalities confirm the effectiveness and competivive performance of the proposed method compared with other representative models.

     

Measurement of local electric field in microdevices for low-voltage electroporation of adherent cells

In this study, we present the measurement of the local electric field in a microdevice designed for electroporation of adherent cells. The microdevice mainly consists of a coverslip that has a transparent conductive layer and an insulating layer. The insulating layer has small cylindrical holes that focus the field lines to reduce the voltage required for electroporation. We estimated the local electric field at the cells by analyzing the ionic current based on a simple equivalent circuit model and investigated the correlation between the field strength and the efficiency of electroporation. We prepared various designs with matrices of electrodes with diameters ranging from 5 to 10 μm and center-to-center distances between adjacent electrodes ranging from 20 to 75 μm to perform systematic and statistical investigations. Furthermore, we discussed the efficiency of the electrode design in terms of the degree of field focusing, the applicability of optical observations, and the probability of positioning cells on the electrodes.     

Magnetic concentration of particles and cells in ferrofluid flow through a straight microchannel using attracting magnets

Concentrating particles to a detectable level is often necessary in many applications. Although magnetic force has long been used to enrich magnetic (or magnetically tagged) particles in suspensions, magnetic concentration of diamagnetic particles is relatively new and little reported. We demonstrate in this work a simple magnetic technique to concentrate polystyrene particles and live yeast cells in ferrofluid flow through a straight rectangular microchannel using negative magnetophoresis. The magnetic field gradient is created by two attracting permanent magnets that are placed on the top and bottom of the planar microfluidic device and held in position by their natural attractive force. The magnet–magnet distance is mainly controlled by the thickness of the device substrate and can be made small, allowing for the use of a dilute ferrofluid in the developed magnetic concentration technique. This advantage not only enables a magnetic/fluorescent label-free handling of diamagnetic particles, but also renders such handling biocompatible.     

交流接触器温度场仿真及试验验证

将ANSYS有限元热分析应用到交流接触器热特性分析中,模仿其实际工作环境,构建交流接触器三维稳态热分析模型,确定热源、导热系数和表面散热系数,对接触器的稳态温度场进行分析;进一步改变施加的边界条件,研究不同散热方式下接触器的温度分布。最后对CJX2-0910型交流接触器进行温升试验,将温度场的仿真结果与试验结果比较,误差较小,表明所建立热分析模型的可行性。研究结果对接触器材料的选择、结构的设计及其性能的优化有重要意义。     

Dispersion in electroosmotic flow generated by oscillatory electric field interacting with oscillatory wall potentials

An analytical study is presented in this article on the dispersion of a neutral solute released in an oscillatory electroosmotic flow (EOF) through a two-dimensional microchannel. The flow is driven by the nonlinear interaction between oscillatory axial electric field and oscillatory wall potentials. These fields have the same oscillation frequency, but with disparate phases. An asymptotic method of averaging is employed to derive the analytical expressions for the steady-flow-induced and oscillatory-flow-induced components of the dispersion coefficient. Dispersion coefficients are functions of various parameters representing the effects of electric double-layer thickness (Debye length), oscillation parameter, and phases of the oscillating fields. The time–harmonic interaction between the wall potentials and electric field generates steady as well as time-oscillatory components of electroosmotic flow, each of which will contribute to a steady component of the dispersion coefficient. It is found that, for a thin electric double layer, the phases of the oscillating wall potentials will play an important role in determining the magnitude of the dispersion coefficient. When both phases are zero (i.e., full synchronization of the wall potentials with the electric field), the flow is nearly a plug flow leading to very small dispersion. When one phase is zero and the other phase is π,?the flow will be sheared to the largest possible extent at the center of the channel, and such a sharp velocity gradient will lead to the maximum possible dispersion coefficient.     

Mathematical model of the coordinate-sensitive photodetector with control electric field

Design principles for of a mathematical model of the semiconductor photodetector meant for the operation in specialized computer vision systems in optical section scanning are stated. Is composed a system of equations with partial derivatives describing physical processes in separate constructively prescribed segments of the photodetector structure. The general solution is obtained as a superposition of partial solutions relating to different combinations of physical actions on the structure—external light and internal electric fields—on these segments. Families of computed and experimentally obtained output coordinate characteristics of the photodetector are given. The adequacy of the model is confirmed by the similarity of these characteristics. The model can be used on different stages of projecting and operating for photodetectors of this class.     

Generation of picosecond radiation by semiconductors under electric field and electron beam pulses

The results of characteristic’s investigation of the compact ps light generator are represented. Generator consists of two main components—high voltage pulse generator and a laser head (coaxial camera with electrodes and semiconductor target). High voltage and e-beam pulse’s influence on monocrystal ZnSe and CdS targets was investigated in pressure range from 10⁻¹ to 5 torr. It was shown that pressure increase leads to e-beam pulse duration shortening. The output power of ZnSe (480 nm) and CdS (525 nm) targets in lasing regime has exceeded 10 kW at room temperature.     

Fabrication of bio/nano interfaces between biological cells and carbon nanotubes using dielectrophoresis

The authors have previously demonstrated the manipulation of bacteria and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using dielectrophoresis (DEP) and its application for various types of biological and chemical sensors. This paper demonstrates simultaneous DEP handling of bacteria and CNTs, which are mixed and suspended in water. The CNTs were solubilized in water using microplasma-based treatment. When a microelectrode was energized with an ac voltage in the suspension of Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells and multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs), both of them were simultaneously trapped in the microelectrode gap. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed that E. coli cells were trapped on the surface or the tip of MWCNTs, where the electric field strength was intensified due to high aspect ratio of MWCNTs. As a result, bio/nano interfaces between bacteria and MWCNTs were automatically formed in a self-assembly manner. A potential application of the DEP-fabricated bio/nano interfaces is a drug delivery system (DDS), which is realized by transporting drug molecules from CNTs to cells across the cell membrane, which can be electroporated by the local high electric field formed on the CNT surface.     

Optimized electro-optical properties of polymer-stabilized vertical-aligned liquid crystal displays driven by an in-plane field

Polymer networks are employed in vertical-aligned liquid crystal (LC) cells to stabilize the LC molecular configuration under the in-plane field driving. Two different polymer morphologies, respectively produced by the monofunctional and bifunctional acrylate monomers, are assembled on the glass-substrate surface. The enhanced electro-optical performance is observed on the LC cell with bifunctional acrylate polymer networks, and the appropriate display cell is developed at an optimum concentration of 2 wt%. This type of polymer-LC cell shows the fast turn-off and turn-on responses at the low driving voltage, which are attributed to the strong anchoring and the stable LC reorientations, respectively. Furthermore, around 30% improvement in the gray-level response on the 2-wt%-TA-9164-polymer-LC cell is successfully achieved, as compared to the pure LC cells.     

Transport control in fusion plasmas by changing electric and magnetic field spatial profiles

For magnetically confined plasmas in tokamaks, we have numerically investigated how Lagrangian chaos at the plasma edge affects the plasma confinement. Initially, we have considered the chaotic motion of particles in an equilibrium electric field with a monotonic radial profile perturbed by drift waves. We have showed that an effective transport barrier may be created at the plasma edge by modifying the electric field radial profile. In the second place, we have obtained escape patterns and magnetic footprints of chaotic magnetic field lines in the region near a tokamak wall with resonant modes due to the action of an ergodic magnetic limiter. For monotonic plasma current density profiles we have obtained distributions of field line connections to the wall and line escape channels with the same spatial pattern as the magnetic footprints on the tokamak walls.     

Geometric origin of pair production by electric field in de sitter space

Particle production in de Sitter space provides an interesting model for understanding the curvature effect on Schwinger pair production by a constant electric field or the Schwinger mechanism on de Sitter radiation. For that purpose, we employ the recently introduced complex analysis method in which the quantum evolution in complex time explains pair production via the geometric transition amplitude and gives the pair-production rate as a contour integral. We compare the result from the contour integral with that of the phase-integral method.