English

Force and torque on an electric dipole by spinning light fields

Optics 2015-06-16 v2

Abstract

We calculate the optical force and torque applied to an electric dipole by a spinning light field. We find that the dissipative part of the force depends on the orbital energy flow of the field only, because the latter is related to the phase gradient generalized for such a light field. As for the remaining spin energy flow, it gives rise to an optical torque. The resulting change in the optical force is detailed for different experimentally relevant configurations, and we show in particular how this change is critical when surface plasmon modes are involved.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1306.2050,
  title  = {Force and torque on an electric dipole by spinning light fields},
  author = {Antoine Canaguier-Durand and Aurélien Cuche and Cyriaque Genet and Thomas W. Ebbesen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.2050},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:30:44.050Z