Related papers: Chiral standing waves and its trapping force on ch…
Chirality is at the origin of life and is ubiquitous in nature. An object is deemed chiral if it is non-superimposable with its own mirror image. This relates to how circularly polarized light interacts with such object, a circular…
Interferometry can completely redirect light, providing the potential for strong and controllable optical forces. However, small particles do not naturally act like interferometric beamsplitters, and the optical scattering from them is not…
We describe a novel method to measure the surface charge densities on optical fibers placed in the vicinity of a trapped ion, where the ion itself acts as the probe. Surface charges distort the trapping potential, and when the fibers are…
Optical pulling forces or tractor beams can pull particles against light propagation by redirecting the incident photons forward. This is typically achieved using Bessel beams with very small half-cone angles, which considerably limits its…
Focused laser beams allow controlling mechanical motion of objects and can serve as a tool for assembling complex micro and nano structures in space. While in a vast majority of cases small particles experience attractive gradient forces…
We discuss optical chirality in different types of gyrotropic media. Our analysis is based on the formalism of nongeometric symmetries of Maxwell's equations in vacuum generalized to material media with given constituent relations. This…
Photophoretic forces, several orders of magnitude stronger than radiation pressure, enable particle trapping at remarkably low optical intensities and have opened pathways to applications in aerosol science, free-space 3D volumetric…
We consider the optical dipole potential energy, which arises from the interaction of a two-level atom with a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam of small waist. The beam is characterized by the existence of a longitudinal…
It is shown that a superposition of static and rapidly oscillating electric {\it monopole} (source) fields is capable of trapping particles with a permanent electric dipole moment. Thus, the new trapping mechanism differs fundamentally from…
We review recent works on optomechanics of optically trapped microspheres and nanoparticles in vacuum, which provide an ideal system for studying macroscopic quantum mechanics and ultrasensitive force detection. An optically trapped…
Chiral functionalities exhibited by systems lacking any mirror symmetry encompass natural optical activity, magnetochiral effect, diagonal current-induced magnetization, chirality-selective spin-polarized current of charged electrons or…
When circularly polarized light interacts with a nanostructure, the optical response depends on the geometry of the structure. If the nanostructure is chiral (i.e., it cannot be superimposed on its mirror image), then its optical response,…
The presence of chirality in the main molecules of life may well be not just a structural artifact, but of pure biological advantage. The possibility of the existence of a phenomenon of a special mode of interaction, labeled as "chiral…
We propose a novel high resolution microscopy technique for enantio-specific detection of chiral samples down to sub-100 nm size, based on force measurement. We delve into the differential photo-induced optical force exerted on an achiral…
We study a crystal composed of active units governed by self-alignment and chirality. The first mechanism acts as an effective torque that aligns the particle orientation with its velocity, while the second drives individual particles along…
This paper develops, in precise quantum electrodynamic terms, photonic attributes of the "optical chirality density", one of several measures long known to be conserved quantities for a vacuum electromagnetic field. The analysis lends…
Light is one of the most powerful and precise tools allowing us to control, shape and create new phases of matter. In this task, the magnetic component of a light wave has so far played a unique role in defining the wave's helicity, but its…
We investigate the interplay between chirality and confinement in harmonically trapped active particles. The circular character of chiral motion combines with the radial symmetry of the potential to create distinctive non-equilibrium…
Optically coupled nanoparticles suffer the action of multiple electromagnetic forces when they are illuminated by light. In general, two kinds of forces are commonly assumed: binding forces that make them attract/repel each other and…
Chiral objects rotate when placed in a collimated flow or wind. We exploit this hydrodynamic intuition to construct a tensorial chirality measure for rigid filaments and curves. This tensor is trace-free, so if a curve has a right-handed…