Fig. 3: The effect of inner diameter on the manipulation performance of light patterns.

a. Microscopic images of 10 μm PS microparticles trapped by ring light patterns with the same thickness T but varying inner diameters \(\Phi\) (i.e., 16 μm), scale bar 25 μm. Light patterns with inner diameters of 16 μm and 18 μm failed to trap the particles, whereas other patterns successfully did so. b Success rate of trapping versus light pattern’s inner diameters \(\Phi\). c Distribution of electric potential and Maxwell stress tensor for a single microparticle at the edges of light patterns with different inner diameters. d Schematic diagram illustrating the forces acting on a microparticle positioned at both the edge and center of the ring light pattern. e Horizontal and f vertical DEP force distributions on a microparticle located at various positions within light patterns of different inner diameters. The center of the light pattern is denoted as position 0. g Relationship between α, β (indicating the stable controllable range of the internal chamber of the light pattern) and the inner diameters of the light patterns