A Review of Ultrasonic Nano Manipulation Technology

Nano manipulation technology has great potential applications in the assembly,measurement and fabrication of nano materials,actuating and high-sensitivity sensing of biological samples,manufacture of nano sensors,decontamination of air and water,etc. As an actuating technology which is far from being mature,the nano manipulation still faces lots of challenges in the device principles,design,scaling up,sample safety,etc.The ultrasonic nano manipulation, in which nanoscale objects are handled and actuated by controlled ultrasound,is an emerging technology to meet some of challenges in nano manipulations. The author＇s research team and other groups have proposed and realized a series of nano manipulation functions such as trapping,transfer, rotation and concentration since 2012, by controlled ultrasound. Compared with other nano manipulating techniques,the ultrasonic method has the merits such as very low temperature rise at the manipulation area,little selectivity to the material properties of manipulated samples,capability of being implemented on the substrates without MENS or NEMS structure,etc. This paper reviews the progresses in principles,functions,structures and characteristics of the ultrasonic devices for nano manipulations.