{"doi":"10.1063/5.0051354","title":"Label-free image-encoded microfluidic cell sorter with a scanning Bessel beam","abstract":"The microfluidic-based, label-free image-guided cell sorter offers a low-cost, high information content, and disposable solution that overcomes many limitations in conventional cell sorters. However, flow confinement for most microfluidic devices is generally only one-dimensional using sheath flow. As a result, the equilibrium distribution of cells spreads beyond the focal plane of commonly used Gaussian laser excitation beams, resulting in a large number of blurred images that hinder subsequent cell sorting based on cell image features. To address this issue, we present a Bessel–Gaussian beam image-guided cell sorter with an ultra-long depth of focus, enabling focused images of >85% of passing cells. This system features label-free sorting capabilities based on features extracted from the output temporal waveform of a photomultiplier tube (PMT) detector. For the sorting of polystyrene beads, SKNO1 leukemia cells, and Scenedesmus green algae, our results indicate a sorting purity of 97%, 97%, and 98%, respectively, showing that the temporal waveforms from the PMT outputs have strong correlations with cell image features. These correlations are also confirmed by off-line reconstructed cell images from a temporal–spatial transformation algorithm tailored to the scanning Bessel–Gaussian beam.","journal":"APL Photonics","year":2021,"id":202590,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9569,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":374351,"name":"Lauren Waller","orcid":"0000-0003-4778-6082","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":374353,"name":"Jiajie Chen","orcid":"0000-0002-7200-6626","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":374348,"name":"Rui Tang","orcid":"0000-0001-7024-3831","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":374349,"name":"Zunming Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-1002-4036","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":503807,"name":"Ivan Gagne","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":783242,"name":"Bien Gutierrez","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":375407,"name":"Sung Hwan Cho","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":736789,"name":"Chi-Yang Tseng","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":503808,"name":"Ian Lian","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":375408,"name":"Yu‐Hwa Lo","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":374350,"name":"Xinyu Chen","orcid":"0000-0002-9507-5835","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":30,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:51:10.291262Z","pmid":"34263031","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}