High-frequency electric-field trap for micron and submicron particles

Four e-beam-processed, planar electrodes with gaps between 0.5 and 4 μm were used to create quadrupole electric-field trap. The electrodes were immersed in an aqueous particle suspension and driven by kHz to MHz signals of several volts amplitude. Micron and submicron particles could be stably trapped by negative dielectrophoresis. Latex beads of 1000, 600, 100 and 14 nm diameter could be concentrated between the electrodes (positive dielectrophoresis) or levitated as condensed cloud (negative dielectrophoresis). The results are surprising since polarisation forces depend on the volume of the particle and, up to now, it was expected that thermal forces would dominate the behaviour of particles with diameters <100 nm. However, micron-scaled electrode configurations allow the application of extremely strong fields (up to 20 MV/m) and open up new perspectives for microparticle handling and macromolecule trapping.