Hybrid femtosecond laser fabrication of a size-tunable microtrap chip with a high-trapping retention rate

In this Letter, we propose a new (to the best of our knowledge), promising concept of a hybrid femtosecond (fs) laser processing method composed of single-point scanning and holographic light modulation fabrication for manufacturing a tunable-size microtrap chip. The hybrid method not only ensures key microfluidic device precision but also greatly improves the fabrication speed. By using a new asymmetry-bracket-shaped microtrap design with a mechanical strain stretching method, real-time size-tunable trapping is obtained, and a 100% particle trapping retention is realized, ignoring the flow fluctuation. Finally, the microtrap array is successfully applied to trap single yeast cells and hold them for ∼ 10 h without escaping.