Related papers: Negative optical torque on a microsphere in optica…
Microscopically controlled neutral atoms in optical tweezers and lattices have led to exciting advances in the study of quantum information and quantum many-body systems. The light shifts of atomic levels from the trapping potential in…
Circular dichroism is the differential rate of absorption of right- and left-handed circularly polarized light by chiral particles. Optical vortices which convey orbital angular momentum (OAM) possess a chirality associated with the…
We demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically that a colloidal sphere trapped in a static optical tweezer does not come to equilibrium, but rather reaches a steady state in which its probability flux traces out a toroidal vortex.…
Optical tweezers are widely used for the manipulation of cells and their internal structures. However, the degree of manipulation possible is limited by poor control over the orientation of trapped cells. We show that it is possible to…
The tractor behavior of a zero-order Bessel acoustic beam acting on a fluid sphere, and emanating from a finite circular aperture (as opposed to waves of infinite extent) is demonstrated theoretically. Conditions for an attractive force…
We present an optical system designed to capture and observe a single neutral atom in an optical dipole trap, created by focussing a laser beam using a large numerical aperture N.A.=0.5 aspheric lens. We experimentally evaluate the…
In this Letter we show how a single beam optical trap offers the means for three-dimensional manipulation of semiconductor nanorods in solution. Furthermore rotation of the direction of the electric field provides control over the…
As a first approximation, the forces acting on optically trapped particles are commonly assumed to be conservative. The influence of the nonconservative force has been shown to be negligible in overdamped liquid environments. However, its…
It is common to introduce optical tweezers using either geometric optics for large particles or the Rayleigh approximation for very small particles. These approaches are successful at conveying the key ideas behind optical tweezers in their…
Patterned graphene, as an atomically thin layer, supports localized surface plasmon-polaritons (LSPPs) at mid-infrared or far-infrared frequencies. This provides a pronounced optical force/torque in addition to large optical cross sections…
Under the introduction of any interface in its trajectory, an optical beam experiences polarization-dependent deflections in the longitudinal and transverse directions with respect to the plane of incidence. The physics of such optical beam…
A general theory of optical forces on moving bodies is here developed in terms of generalized/4x4 transfer and scattering matrices. Results are presented for a planar dielectric multilayer of arbitrary refractive index placed in an…
State-dependent optical tweezers can be used to trap a pair of molecules with a separation much smaller than the wavelength of the trapping light, greatly enhancing the dipole-dipole interaction between them. Here we describe a general…
On the one hand, electromagnetic dual particles preserve the helicity of light upon interaction. On the other hand, chiral particles respond differently to light of opposite helicity. These two properties on their own constitute a source of…
Precise spatial manipulation of particles via optical forces is essential in many research areas, ranging from biophysics to atomic physics. Central to this effort is the challenge of designing optical systems that are optimized for…
We report the first study on the optical force exerted by an evanescent wave on a small sphere with both electric and magnetic response to the incident field, immersed in an arbitrary nondissipative medium. New expressions and effects from…
Refractive optical trapping forces can be nonconservative in the vicinity of a stable equilibrium point even in the absence of radiation pressure. We discuss how nonconservative 3D force fields, in the vicinity of an equilibrium point,…
In optical dipole traps, the excited rotational states of a molecule may experience a very different light shift than the ground state. For particles with two polarizability components (parallel and perpendicular), such as linear $^1\Sigma$…
Computational methods for electromagnetic and light scattering can be used for the calculation of optical forces and torques. Since typical particles that are optically trapped or manipulated are on the order of the wavelength in size,…
An excited-state atom whose emitted light is back-reflected by a distant mirror can experience trapping forces, because the presence of the mirror modifies both the electromagnetic vacuum field and the atom's own radiation reaction field.…