Dielectrophoresis-electrophoresis transition during the photovoltaic manipulation of water microdroplets on LiNbO3:Fe platform

The abrupt behaviors of microdroplets during the LN-based photovoltaic manipulation may cause the transient instability and even failure of the microfluidic manipulation. In this paper, we perform a systematical analysis on the responses of water microdroplets to laser illumination on both naked and PTFE-coated LN:Fe surface, and find that the abrupt repulsive behaviors of the microdroplets are due to the electrostatic transition from the dielectrophoresis (DEP) to electrophoresis (EP) mechanism. Charging of the water microdroplets through the Rayleigh jetting from electrified water/oil interface is suggested as the cause of the DEP-EP transition. Fitting the kinetic data of the microdroplets to the models describing the motion of the microdroplets under the photovoltaic field yields the charging amount depending on the substrate configuration (∼1.7 × 10−11 and 3.9 × 10−12 C on the naked and PTFE-coated LN:Fe substrates), and also reveals the dominance of the EP mechanism in the co-existence of the DEP and EP mechanisms. The outcome of this paper will be quite important to the practicalization of the photovoltaic manipulation in LN-based optofluidic chips.