Thermo-plasmonic manipulation of living cyanobacteria on a gold nanostructure

We present a novel manipulation technique for living cyanobacteria on a plasmonic substrate. Upon plasmon excitation, a local temperature around the excitation area was elevated, leading to a microbubble formation in water. Subsequently, living cyanobacteria were transported to the microbubble by a thermal convection. The cyanobacteria were permanently fixed on the area even after switching off the plasmon excitation. We found that about a half of the fixed cyanobacteria were alive. We succeeded in a micro-ring pattern of living cyanobacteria by the technique.