A photonic nanojet is a highly focused optical beam with a subwavelength waist on the shadow side of the sphere. Successful far-field applications require long nanojets that extend afar. Using the exact Mie theory, we show that ultralong nanojets can be generated using a simple two-layer microsphere structure, using conventional optical materials that are readily available. In particular, we sh...

We explore the generality of nanoparticle haloing as a novel colloidal stabilization mechanism in binary mixtures of silica microspheres and polystyrene nanoparticles. By selectively tuning their electrostatic interactions, both the initial microsphere stability and the role of nanoparticle additions are varied. Adsorption isotherm and zeta potential measurements indicate that highly charged na...

We demonstrate all-optical sympathetic cooling of a laser-trapped microsphere to sub-Kelvin temperatures, mediate by optical binding feedback-cooled adjacent particle. Our study opens prospects for multi-particle quantum entanglement and sensing in levitated optomechanics.

We have studied the photoluminescence and Raman spectra of a system consisting of a polystyrene latex microsphere coated by CdTe colloidal quantum dots. The cavity-induced enhancement of the Raman scattering allows the observation of Raman spectra from only a monolayer of CdTe quantum dots. Periodic structure with very narrow peaks in the photoluminescence spectra of a single microsphere was de...

A sensitive assay for adenovirus quantitation in vitro was developed using the flow microsphere immunoassay (FMIA) approach. Polystyrene microspheres were covalently coated with purified anti-adenoviral antibodies and incubated with virus-containing samples. After incubation, the samples were stained with DNA-specific fluorescent dyes, and microsphere-associated fluorescence was quantitated wit...

We present the fabrication of a microlens array which can be integrated into a microfluidic device. In the demonstrated technique, a microwell array is firstly fabricated in a Parylene-C layer by a standard cleanroom process. Afterwards, the optically transparent dielectric microspheres with high refractive index are patterned inside the well template by utilizing an electrostatic technique. Th...