  Here we demonstrate the all-optical manipulation of polymeric membranes in
microfluidic environments. The membranes are decorated with handles for their
use in holographic optical tweezers setups. Our results show that due to their
form factor the membranes present an 8-fold increase in their mechanical
stability, respect to micrometric dielectric particles. This intrinsic superior
stability is expected to improve profoundly a wide range of bio-photonic
applications that rely on the optical manipulation of micrometric objects while
studying single-molecule mechanics and sub-cellular scale transport processes.
