English

Optical torque controlled by elliptical polarization

Optics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

We show theoretically and demonstrate experimentally that highly absorbing particles can be trapped and manipulated in a single highly focused Gaussian beam. Our studies of the effects of polarized light on such particles show that they can be set into rotation by elliptically polarized light and that both the sense and the speed of their rotation can be smoothly controlled.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0310003,
  title  = {Optical torque controlled by elliptical polarization},
  author = {M. E. J. Friese and T. A. Nieminen and N. R. Heckenberg and H. Rubinsztein-Dunlop},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0310003},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

3 pages, 3 figures