Programmable optical transport of particles in knot circuits and networks

A freestyle single-beam laser trap allows for multi-particle optical transport along arbitrary open or closed trajectories with independent control of the all-optical confinement and propulsion forces exerted over the particles. Here, exploiting this manipulation tool, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an optical dynamic routing technique to assist multi-particle transport in knot circuits and networks exhibiting multiple crossing paths. This new functionality for optical transport enables the particle circulation in such complex systems handling traffic jams and making possible particle separation/mixing in them. It is important for the development of programmable particle delivery and other automated optical transport operations of interest in colloidal physics, optofluidics, biophysics, etc.