Scholars@Duke
Domna Kotsifaki

Domna Kotsifaki

Assistant Professor of Physics at Duke Kunshan University
DKU Faculty

Selected Publications

Detection of small microplastics in the surface freshwater samples of Yangcheng Lake, China

Journal Article Heliyon · October 23, 2024 Microplastics up to 20 μm are recognized as having the highest potential to cause significant impacts on aquatic environments. Current methods face challenges in detecting and chemically characterizing small microplastics in freshwater systems. In this stu ... Full text Open Access Cite

Fast lipid vesicles and dielectric particles migration using thermal-gradient-induced forces

Journal Article Journal of Optics (United Kingdom) · September 1, 2024 Lipid vesicles are small biological particles that can be used for both targeted drug delivery systems and clinical studies. Their optical manipulation, however, is limited by the small difference in refractive indices with the surrounding medium, as well ... Full text Cite

Biomedical Optics Express Feature Issue Introduction: Optical Manipulation and Its Applications (OMA) 2023.

Journal Article Biomedical optics express · February 2024 The feature issue of Biomedical Optics Express presents studies that were the focus of the Optical Manipulation and its Applications (OMA) meeting that was held on 24 - 27 April 2022 in Vancouver, Canada. ... Full text Cite

Asymmetric split-ring plasmonic nanostructures for the optical sensing of Escherichia coli.

Journal Article Biomedical optics express · September 2023 Strategies for in-liquid micro-organism detection are crucial for the clinical and pharmaceutical industries. While Raman spectroscopy is a promising label-free technique for micro-organism detection, it remains challenging due to the weak bacterial Raman ... Full text Cite

Enabling Self-Induced Back-Action Trapping of Gold Nanoparticles in Metamaterial Plasmonic Tweezers.

Journal Article Nano letters · June 2023 Featured Publication The pursuit for efficient nanoparticle trapping with low powers has led to optical tweezers technology moving from the conventional free-space configuration to advanced plasmonic systems. However, trapping nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm still remains a c ... Full text Open Access Cite

Plasmonic and metamaterial biosensors: a game-changer for virus detection

Journal Article Sensors and Diagnostics · May 1, 2023 One of the most important processes in the fight against current and future pandemics is the rapid diagnosis and initiation of treatment of viruses in humans. Currently available viral diagnostic methods detect only known pathogens, which comprise a small ... Full text Cite

Plasmonic nanostructures for environmental monitoring and/or biological applications

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2023 In this work, we have identified the size of microplastics collected from Shi Lake, China, using an optical tweezer micro-Raman spectroscopy (OTMRS) system. The microplastics were classified based on their size as products of degradation of large plastic m ... Full text Cite

Manipulation, trapping, and biosensing using metamaterial devices

Conference Optical Manipulation and Its Applications, OMA 2023 · January 1, 2023 We have designed and fabricated plasmonic metamaterial devices for single nanoparticle trapping and biosensing applications. We studied the ability to trap several nano-objects. Moreover, we have identified bacteria in liquid using the same designed metama ... Full text Cite

The role of temperature-induced effects generated by plasmonic nanostructures on particle delivery and manipulation: A review

Journal Article Nanophotonics · May 1, 2022 Plasmonic optical tweezers that stem from the need to trap and manipulate ever smaller particles using non-invasive optical forces, have made significant contributions to precise particle motion control at the nanoscale. In addition to the optical forces, ... Full text Cite

Nanoparticle positioning via metamaterial plasmonic tweezers

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2022 We present sequential trapping and positioning of 20 nm polystyrene particles into an array configuration by using metamaterial plasmonic tweezers. The polystyrene nanoparticles suspended into a heavy water solution were trapped on adjacent plasmonic hotsp ... Full text Cite

Analysis of small microplastics in coastal surface water samples of the subtropical island of Okinawa, Japan.

Journal Article The Science of the total environment · March 2021 Marine plastic debris is widely recognized as a global environmental issue. Small microplastic particles, with an upper size limit of 20 μm, have been identified as having the highest potential for causing damage to marine ecosystems. Having accurate metho ... Full text Cite

Dynamic multiple nanoparticle trapping using metamaterial plasmonic tweezers

Journal Article Applied Physics Letters · January 11, 2021 Optical manipulation has attracted remarkable interest owing to its versatile and noninvasive nature. However, conventional optical trapping remains inefficient in the nanoscopic world. The emergence of plasmonics in recent years has brought a revolutionar ... Full text Cite

Fast and efficient nanoparticle trapping using plasmonic connected nanoring apertures.

Journal Article Nanotechnology · January 2021 The manipulation of microparticles using optical forces has led to many applications in the life and physical sciences. To extend optical trapping towards the nano-regime, in this work we demonstrate trapping of single nanoparticles in arrays of plasmonic ... Full text Cite

Detection and analysis of microplastics in the subtropical ocean of Okinawa using micro-Raman Optical Tweezers

Conference 2021 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea: Learning to Measure Sea Health Parameters, MetroSea 2021 - Proceedings · January 1, 2021 Plastic is a widely used material in our daily lives. Microplastic pollution has also generated worldwide concern due to its distribution in the environment, and its potential threat to human and animal health. Due to the complexity of sampling and extract ... Full text Cite

Analysis of small plastics in coastal surface water samples of Okinawa using optical tweezers-Raman spectroscopy

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2021 In this work, we employ an optical trapping-Raman spectroscopy technique for simultaneous characterization and monitoring of the physical and chemical properties of single small micro-plastics in a seawater environment. Through analysis of the data, we che ... Full text Cite

Raman optical tweezers for microplastic pollution identification in the surface waters of Okinawa

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2021 Marine plastic debris is a widely recognized environmental issue. By employing an optical micro-Raman tweezers setup, we have identified the composition of particles trapped in marine aggregates collected from the coastal surface waters around the subtropi ... Full text Cite

Giant optical forces using an array of asymmetric split-ring plasmonic nanostructures

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2021 We demonstrated optical trapping of 20 nm particles using a Fano-resonance-assisted plasmonic tweezers based on arrays of asymmetrical split nanoapertures on a 50-nm gold thin film. By transmission and reflection spectra measurements, the close-mode Fano-t ... Full text Cite

Fano-Resonant, Asymmetric, Metamaterial-Assisted Tweezers for Single Nanoparticle Trapping.

Journal Article Nano letters · May 2020 Plasmonic nanostructures overcome Abbe's diffraction limit to create strong gradient electric fields, enabling efficient optical trapping of nanoparticles. However, it remains challenging to achieve stable trapping with low incident laser intensity. Here, ... Full text Cite

Nanometric plasmonic optical trapping on gold nanostructures

Journal Article EPJ Applied Physics · June 1, 2019 The precise noninvasive optical manipulation of nanometer-sized particles by evanescent fields, instead of the conventional optical tweezers, has recently awaken an increasing interest, opening a way for investigating phenomena relevant to both fundamental ... Full text Cite

Multiple nanoparticle trapping with low laser intensity, using gold plasmonic array

Conference Optical Manipulation and Its Applications - Proceedings Biophotonics Congress: Optics in the Life Sciences Congress 2019 (BODA, BRAIN, NTM, OMA, OMP) · April 8, 2019 We used a patterned gold nanohole array for trapping multiple polystyrene nanoparticles (30 nm) at low laser intensity (0.51 mW/μm2). A high trap stiffness was achieved (0.85 fN/(nm·mW) and experimental values were in agreement with simulations. ... Cite

Trapping nanoparticles with nearfield plasmonic tweezers

Conference Optics InfoBase Conference Papers · January 1, 2019 We present multiple polystyrene nanoparticle trapping at extremely low laser intensity, using a patterned gold array. High experimental trapping stiffness is obtained, in very good agreement with simulated values. ... Full text Cite

Plasmonic optical tweezers based on nanostructures: Fundamentals, advances and prospects

Journal Article Nanophotonics · January 1, 2019 The ability of metallic nanostructures to confine light at the sub-wavelength scale enables new perspectives and opportunities in the field of nanotechnology. Making use of this unique advantage, nano-optical trapping techniques have been developed to tack ... Full text Cite

Plasmonic annular aperture arrays for nanoparticle manipulation

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2019 In this work, we present experimental results on the optical trapping and manipulation of micro- and nanoparticles using plasmonic tweezers based on arrays of annular nanoapertures. By increasing the inner disk size of the nanoaperture, a redshift of the r ... Full text Cite

Single-protein and single nanoparticle trapping using plasmonic nanoaperture array

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2019 We demonstrate optical trapping of single Cytochrome c proteins, using a plasmonic tweezers based on metallic asymmetric nano-aperture arrays. We succeed in immobilizing single proteins with very low in-trap laser intensities. This approach paves the way f ... Cite

Geometrical effect characterization of femtosecond-laser manufactured glass microfluidic chips based on optical manipulation of submicroparticles

Journal Article Optical Engineering · December 1, 2017 Microfluidic devices provide a platform with wide ranging applications from environmental monitoring to disease diagnosis. They offer substantive advantages but are often not optimized or designed to be used by nonexpert researchers. Microchannels of a mic ... Full text Cite

Biophotonics for imaging and cell manipulation: Quo vadis?

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · January 1, 2017 As one of the major health problems for mankind is cancer, any development for the early detection and effective treatment of cancer is crucial to saving lives. Worldwide, the dream for the anti-cancer procedure of attack is the development of a safe and e ... Full text Cite

Plasmon enhanced optical tweezers with gold-coated black silicon.

Journal Article Scientific reports · May 2016 Plasmonic optical tweezers are a ubiquitous tool for the precise manipulation of nanoparticles and biomolecules at low photon flux, while femtosecond-laser optical tweezers can probe the nonlinear optical properties of the trapped species with applications ... Full text Cite

Near-field enhanced optical tweezers utilizing femtosecond-laser nanostructured substrates

Journal Article Applied Physics Letters · November 23, 2015 We present experimental evidence of plasmonic-enhanced optical tweezers, of polystyrene beads in deionized water in the vicinity of metal-coated nanostructures. The optical tweezers operate with a continuous wave near-infrared laser. We employ a Cu/Au bila ... Full text Cite

Enhanced optical forces in plasmonic microstructures

Conference Springer Proceedings in Physics · January 1, 2014 Micromanipulation of dielectric objects, from polystyrene spheres to living cells, is achieved when radiation pressure forces create stable trapping by highly focused laser beams through microscopes. However, the impressive history of optical trapping is s ... Full text Cite

Near infrared optical tweezers and nanosecond ablation on yeast and algae cells

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · July 22, 2013 In recent years, lasers for optical trapping and micromanipulation of microscopic particles or cells and sub cellular structures, both in vivo and in vitro, have gained remarkable interest in biomedical research and applications. Although the principles an ... Full text Cite

Efficient and low cost multiple optical trap, based on interference

Journal Article Optik · April 1, 2013 Interference fringes provide the means for simultaneous, multiple-micromanipulation, of particles. In biomedical investigations, multiple interference optical trapping gives the feasibility to trap a large number of biological substances. In this paper we ... Full text Cite

Optical tweezers with enhanced efficiency based on laser-structured substrates

Journal Article Applied Physics Letters · July 2, 2012 We present an optical nanotrapping setup that exhibits enhanced efficiency, based on localized plasmonic fields around sharp metallic features. The substrates consist of laser-structured silicon wafers with quasi-ordered microspikes on the surface, coated ... Full text Cite

Mid-infrared radiation transmission through fluoride glass multimode optical fibers

Journal Article Optics and Laser Technology · November 1, 2011 Measurement of the transmission laser radiation from Q-switched and free-running Er:YAG lasers operating at 2.94 μm through fluoride glass multimode optical fibers of 448, 465 and 620 μm core diameter were performed. Attenuation measurements were obtained ... Full text Cite

Micromanipulation of cells and microparticles using optical fibers

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · August 1, 2011 Optical tweezers is a powerful tool which is used to capture and manipulate microscopic particles such as dielectric microspheres and cells. In the single optical trap the beam is strongly focused to a diffraction limited spot by a high numerical aperture ... Full text Cite

Fibers and fiber end sealing caps for Er:YAG laser ablation

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · February 23, 2011 considerable interest, in the recent years, has been allocated in the mid-infrared Er:YAG laser surgery and microsurgery. This interest has been increased after the development of optical fibers and waveguides, for safe and efficient transmission of the ∼3 ... Full text Cite

Paper surface modification by lasers

Conference Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering · February 23, 2011 Lasers can provide a precious tool to conservation process due to their accuracy and the controlled energy they deliver, especially to fragile organic material such as paper. The current study concerns laser modification such as paper cleaning, initially o ... Full text Cite

Micromanipulation of cells and microparticles using optical fibers

Conference Optics InfoBase Conference Papers · January 1, 2011 Optical tweezers is a powerful tool which is used to capture and manipulate microscopic particles such as dielectric microspheres and cells. In the single optical trap the beam is strongly focused to a diffraction limited spot by a high numerical aperture ... Full text Cite

Optical tweezers and manipulation of PMMA beads in various conditions

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · October 20, 2009 Laser optical trapping and micromanipulation of microparticles or cells and subcellular structures have gained remarkable interest in biomedical research and applications. Several laser sources are employed for the combination of a laser scalpel with an op ... Full text Cite

Pulsed infrared radiation transmission through hollow silica waveguides

Journal Article Optics and Laser Technology · June 1, 2009 Transmission measurements of Q-switched and free-running Er:YAG laser radiation, at 2.94 μm and free-running Ho:YAG laser radiation, at 2.06 μm, through hollow silica waveguides of 750 and 1000 μm core diameter were performed. Attenuation measurements were ... Full text Cite

Optical tweezers and manipulation of PMMA beads in various conditions

Conference Optics InfoBase Conference Papers · January 1, 2009 Laser optical trapping and micromanipulation of microparticles or cells and subcellular structures have gained remarkable interest in biomedical research and applications. Several laser sources are employed for the combination of a laser scalpel with an op ... Cite

Ultra-violet laser microbeam and optical trapping for cell micromanipulation

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · November 5, 2007 In recent years, lasers for optical trapping and micromanipulation of microscopic particles or cells and subcellular structures, both in vivo and in vitro, have gained remarkable interest in biomedical research and applications. On the other hand, a highly ... Full text Cite