Optofluidics Emerges from the Laboratory
Feb 1, 2008 — For centuries, the components in optical systems have been made from a variety of glasses and metals. More recently, however, they have been created from plastic and semiconductor materials. In other words, optical materials in general are solid in nature. Though prominent examples of fluid materials in optical systems exist (e.g., liquid crystals, dye lasers and liquid mirror telescopes), by comparison, they are not used extensively. The development of modern micro- and nanofluidics began