  Optical centrifuge has emerged as a promising tool for achieving centrifuge
motion of particles in many fields. Herein, we report a novel optical
centrifuge, as driven by optical lateral force arising from transverse phase
gradient of light in holographic optical tweezers. It has remarkable
advantages, including rapid speed, small footprint, flexible design and easy
control. The optical clearing and sorting as application examples have been
experimentally demonstrated by using Au and polystyrene nanoparticles. The
results show that the optical centrifuge exhibits excellent performance, while
used as optical clearing and optical sorting. For instance, its centrifuge
velocity in optical clearing can reach its peak speed of 120 {\mu}m/s in a
short time, which is highly desirable for optical manipulation of various
particles in microfluidic systems. This study opens a way for realizing novel
functions of optical manipulation including optical clearing and optical
sorting.
