In this work, we study how to grow biofilms and control their growth with optical trapping techniques. In low nutrition media Bacillus subtilis (NCIB 3610) secretes extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), glue-like substance, and ultimately form a biofilm. To observe cells aggregation into clusters and the dynamics of controlled biofilm formation, we utilize an optical tweezers system built around a commercial inverted microscope. A highly focused near-infrared laser beam generated by our optical tweezers attracts cells toward the center of the laser beam, where they are trapped into clusters.
The ability to use a wide range of wavelengths for deep penetration is important in order to target or avoid absorption bands of the biological media. By utilizing the nonlinear optical effect in the scattering bio-soft-matter, we demonstrate the self-trapping and guiding of light in sheep red blood cell suspensions and bacterium suspensions for a range of different wavelengths. By master/slave-type coupling, biological waveguides formed at one wavelength can effectively guide a wide spectrum of light at low power. Finally, we investigate propagation and guiding of optical vortex beams in biological suspensions.
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