US Patent 7259344 - CNT sorting using light

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7259344.html

This patent from Intel focuses on sorting between metallic and semiconducting single walled nanotubes in a fluidic flow path using optical traps created by a laser beam. Such sorting was generally known to the art but this patent provides for multiple chances of selected nanotubes to be captured by the optical trap. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method, comprising sorting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within a fluidic flow for a targeted subset of said CNTs, said sorting comprising attracting at least a portion of said CNTs within said fluidic flow in a direction of increasing intensity of an electric field component of substantially stationary beam of light, said electric field component having a frequency that is less than one or more resonant frequencies of said CNTs within said portion; and attracting a second portion of said CNTs in a direction of increasing intensity of an electric field component of a substantially stationary second beam of light, said electric field component of said second beam of light having a frequency that is less than one or more resonant frequencies of said CNTs within said second portion, said second portion from those of said CNTs within said fluidic flow that were repelled in a direction of decreasing intensity of said electric field component of said beam of light.