Optofluidic photobioreactor apparatus, method, and applications

A method for optically exciting a photosynthetic microorganism for generating a biofuel, a biofuel pre-cursor, or a biomass from the optically-excited photosynthetic microorganism, comprising:

• providing an optical waveguide having an outer surface;
• inputting optical radiation to the optical waveguide;
• propagating the optical radiation in the optical waveguide;
• generating an evanescent optical field adjacent the outer surface of the optical waveguide from the optical radiation propagating in the optical waveguide;
• providing a photosynthetic microorganism within the evanescent optical field of the optical waveguide, wherein the selected photosynthetic microorganism is in the form of an adsorbed single layer of the microorganism;
• and
• driving photosynthesis in the microorganism by irradiating at least a portion of a thylakoid membrane of the photosynthetic microorganism with the evanescent optical field.