Pulsed laser triggered high speed microfluidic fluorescence activated cell sorter

We report a high speed and high purity pulsed laser triggered fluorescence activated cell sorter (PLACS) with a sorting throughput up to 20 000 mammalian cells s⁻¹ with 37% sorting purity, 90% cell viability in enrichment mode, and >90% purity in high purity mode at 1500 cells s⁻¹ or 3000 beads s⁻¹. Fast switching (30 μs) and a small perturbation volume (∼90 pL) is achieved by a unique sorting mechanism in which explosive vapor bubbles are generated using focused laser pulses in a single layer microfluidic PDMS channel.