The application of acoustic and optical waves to exert non-contact forces on microscopic and mesoscopic objects has grown considerably in importance in the past few decades. Different physical principles govern the acoustic and optical forces, leading to diverse biomedical applications. Biocompatibility is crucial, and useful optical and acoustic forces can be applied in devices that maintain local heating to acceptable levels. Current acoustic and optical devices work on complementary length scales, with both modalities having useful capabilities at the scale of the cell. Optical devices also cover subcellular scales and acoustic devices also cover supercellular scales. This complementarity has led to the emergence of multimode manipulation, often with integrated imaging. In this Technical Review, we provide an overview of optical and acoustic forces, before comparing and contrasting the use of these modalities, or combinations thereof, in terms of sample manipulation and suitability for biomedical studies. We conclude with our perspective on the applications in which we expect to see notable developments in the near future.

在过去的几十年中，声波和光波在微观和介观物体上施加非接触力的应用已变得越来越重要。不同的物理原理控制着声和光力，从而导致了多种生物医学应用。生物相容性至关重要，可以在保持局部加热到可接受水平的设备中施加有用的光学和声力。当前的声学和光学装置在互补的长度尺度上工作，两种模态在单元尺度上都具有有用的能力。光学设备还覆盖亚细胞标度，而声学设备也覆盖超细胞标度。这种互补性导致出现了多模式操纵，通常带有集成成像。在本技术评论中，在对样本操作和生物医学研究的适用性进行比较和对比之前，我们将对光学和声力进行概述。我们以对应用程序的看法作为结束，我们希望在不久的将来会看到显着的发展。