title: Measuring the pressures across microfluidic droplets with an optical tweezer.
abstract: We introduce a novel technique that enables pressure measurements to be made in microfluidic chips using optical trapping. Pressure differentials across droplets in a microfluidic channel are determined by monitoring the displacements of a bead in an optical trap. We provide physical interpretation of the results. Our experiments reveal that our device has high sensitivity and can be operated over a wide range of pressures from several Pascals to several thousand Pascals.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Yuhang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Antony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Orth
authors.forename: Ethan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schonbrun
authors.forename: Kenneth B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Crozier