ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how microscaled objects, tiny mechanical devices, and more sophisticated micromachines can be captured, moved, and manipulated by a beam of light. Micromachines are composed of a number of different structural components and actuating mechanisms. A functional tractor beam may be appealing but the reality of physics shows that the forces produced by a light beam is impractical for pushing and pulling macroscale objects. In most cases the light-induced mechanical effects of optical trapping and manipulation exploit the optical forces generated during the interaction between light and matter. The concept of optical tweezing can be qualitatively understood in terms of geometric ray optics. Optically-driven micropumps can also be fabricated using 2PP embedded in integrated lab-on-a-chip devices. Satoshi Kawata and his colleagues at Osaka University had demonstrated in the early 1990s that evanescent waves generated at the surface of a high refractive index prism exerts optical radiation on nearby particles.
