Page 20 - Optofluidics Fundamentals, Devices, and Applications

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Changhuei Yang and Shuo Pang

Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, California

1-1 Introduction
The term ”optofluidics” was coined in 2003 to define an emergent
research field that focuses on combining microfluidic and optical
technology [1–3]. In the space of 5 years, this terminology has become
widely adopted and applied as a categorical descriptor for a large
number of research directions. The input of the term “optofluidic” in
Google yields around 24,000 webpage results.
It is certainly true that some of the research projects that have
adopted “optofluidics” as part of their descriptor could have evolved
independently. After all, we can find examples of research projects
that combine fluidics and optics that predated the genesis of “opto-
fluidics”—the electrowetting lens (Chap. 9) is an excellent example.
However, the large number and wide variety of “optofluidic”-themed
research projects that have cropped up over the past 5 years indicate
that the definition of optofluidics as a field is causally linked to the
proliferation of at least a few such projects. Once the seed idea of
combining the advantages of microfluidics and optics was formally
defined, it did not take long for the concept to take hold in the minds
of researchers and germinate prolifically. The optofluidic microscope
(Chap. 11) and optofluidic lasers (Chap. 10) are some of the projects
for which causal links between the birth of the term “optofluidics”
and the initiation of the projects can be traced.
This leads to the question: “What exactly is optofluidics?” In the
next subsection, we will address this question. We will then briefly
examine the advantages of optics and microfluidics and discuss
briefly some of the ways these two disciplines can combine to gener-
ate optofluidic technologies with unique capabilities.

1