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  • Open Access

Optically trapped particle tracking velocimetry

Tetsuro Tsuji*, Shoma Hashimoto, and Satoshi Taguchi

  • *Contact author: tsuji.tetsuro.7x@kyoto-u.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 034901 – Published 9 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/brnj-cw44

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a microflow velocimetry based on particle tracking with the aid of optical trapping of tracers, namely, optically trapped particle tracking velocimetry (ot-PTV). The ot-PTV has two phases: a trap phase, in which individual tracers are trapped by an optical force and held at a measurement position; and a release phase, in which the tracer is released and advected by the fluid flow, without interference from the optical force. The released tracer is subsequently trapped again by the optical force. By repeating the set of trap and release phases, we can accumulate the sequential images of the tracer that have the same initial position. Although the data acquisition rate of ot-PTV is lower than that of standard micro-resolution particle image velocimetry (μPIV) due to the nature of pointwise measurement, an advantage of ot-PTV is that the measurement positions can be chosen by the experimenter. That is, even when tracers are scarce in a test section because of some external effects and/or the small size of the test section—ill-suited cases for μPIV since the experimenter has to wait for tracers to diffuse into the test section (i.e., diffusion-limited situation)—ot-PTV remains efficient. The concept of ot-PTV is validated using a benchmark experiment, i.e., a pressure-driven flow in a straight microchannel with a square cross section. An application to thermally induced microflows is also demonstrated, where tracers can be scarce in a test section due to thermophoresis.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 034901– Published 9 March, 2026
  • Received 3 September 2025
  • Accepted 27 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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