Related papers: Negative optical torque on a microsphere in optica…

The superposition of a Gaussian mode and a Laguerre-Gauss mode with $\ell=0,p\neq0$ generates the so-called bottle beam: a dark focus surrounded by a bright region. In this paper, we theoretically explore the use of bottle beams as an…

We present an optical tweezer based study of rotation of microscopic objects with shape asymmetry. Thermal fluctuations and rotations are simultaneously monitored through laser back scattering. The rotation results in a modulation in…

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…

Optical forces acting on nano-sized particles are typically too small to be useful for particle manipulation. We theoretically and numerically demonstrate a mechanism that can significantly enhance the optical force acting on a small…

We present experimental techniques and results related to the optimization and characterization of our nanofiber-based atom trap [Vetsch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203603 (2010)]. The atoms are confined in an optical lattice which is…

Optical tweezers are a technique in which microscopic-sized particles, including living cells and bacteria, can be non-intrusively trapped with high accuracy solely using focused light. The technique has therefore become a powerful tool in…

Optical dipole-traps are used in various scientific fields, including classical optics, quantum optics and biophysics. Here, we propose and implement a dipole-trap for nanoparticles that is based on focusing from the full solid angle with a…

We demonstrate a technique to estimate the strength of non-linearities present in the trapping potential of an optically levitated nanoparticle. By applying a brief pulsed reduction in trapping laser power of the system such as to squeeze…

Symmetry breaking effect for left- and right-handed circularly polarized light beams propagating in a rotationally symmetric graded-index optical fiber is presented. It is shown that a left-right asymmetry manifested as an unequal…

Vector optical vortices exhibit complex polarisation patterns due to the interplay between spin and orbital angular momenta. Here we demonstrate, both analytically and with simulations, that certain polarisation features of optical vortex…

We evaluate optical forces and torques induced by a surface plasmon to a sphere of arbitrary size, i.e. beyond the point-like dipolar limit. Through a multipolar decomposition of the plasmonic field, we demonstrate that the induced torque…

Nanoscale objects moving relative to a thermal radiation bath experience a drag force due to the imbalance in their interaction with the blue- and redshifted components of the electromagnetic field. Here, we show that, in addition to this…

Magnetic tweezers are crucial for single-molecule and atomic characterization, and biomedical isolation of microparticle carriers. The trapping component of magnetic tweezing can be relying on a magnetic potential well that can confine the…

A time orbiting potential trap confines neutral atoms in a rotating magnetic field. The rotation of the field can be useful for precision measurements, since it can average out some systematic effects. However, the field is more difficult…

In the recent past, optical tweezers incorporating a stratified medium have been exploited to generate complex translational and rotational dynamics in mesoscopic particles due to the coupling between the spin and orbital angular momentum…

We propose to use optical tweezers to probe the Casimir interaction between microspheres inside a liquid medium for geometric aspect ratios far beyond the validity of the widely employed proximity force approximation. This setup has the…

Optical tweezers (OT) have become an essential technique in several fields of physics, chemistry, and biology as precise micromanipulation tools and microscopic force transducers. Quantitative measurements require the accurate calibration…

We show, by means of simple model calculations, how a weak laser beam sent through an optical fiber exerts a transverse radiation force if there is an azimuthal asymmetry present in the fiber such that one side has a slightly different…

We investigate the dynamics of high aspect ratio nanowires trapped axially in a single gradient force optical tweezers. A power spectrum analysis of the Brownian dynamics reveals a broad spectral resonance of the order of a kHz with peak…

Photonic devices exhibiting all-optically reconfigurable polarization dependence with a large dynamic range would be highly attractive for active polarization control. Here, we report that strongly polarization-selective nonlinear…