Related papers: Optimizing optical trap stiffness for Rayleigh par…
We present a detailed theoretical study of the recent proposal for selective nanomanipulation of nanometric particles above a substrate using near-field optical forces [Chaumet {\it et al.} Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 88}, 123601 (2002)].…
Light-induced rotation of absorbing microscopic particles by transfer of angular momentum from light to the material raises the possibility of optically driven micromachines. The phenomenon has been observed using elliptically polarized…
Serial diffraction of proteins requires an injection method to deliver protein molecules - preferably uncharged, fully hydrated, spatially oriented, and with high flux - into the crossed beams of an alignment laser and a focused probe beam…
The propagation of Airy beams in free space is characterized by being non dispersive, which warrants the shape invariance of their intensity distribution, and self-accelerating along the transverse direction. These distinctive traits are…
Optically levitated and cooled nanoparticles are a new quantum system whose application to the creation of non-classical states of motion and quantum limited sensing is fundamentally limited by recoil and bulk heating. We study the creation…
We theoretically investigate the optical force exerted on an isotropic particle illuminated by a superposition of plane waves. We derive explicit analytical expressions for the exerted force up to quadrupolar polarizabilities. Based on…
The spin angular momentum in an elliptically polarized beam of light plays several noteworthy roles in optical traps. It contributes to the linear momentum density in a non-uniform beam, and thus to the radiation pressure exerted on…
Optical forces are often calculated by discretizing the trapping light beam into a set of rays and using geometrical optics to compute the exchange of momentum. However, the number of rays sets a trade-off between calculation speed and…
Optical trapping can be used to manipulate the three-dimensional (3-D) motion of spherical particles based on the simple prediction of optical forces and the responding motion of samples. However, controlling the 3-D behaviour of…
Studies of nanoparticle-based optical matter have only considered spherical constituents. Yet nanoparticles with other shapes are expected to have different local electromagnetic field distributions and therefore interactions with neighbors…
We present a novel technique for generating beams of light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) that increases mode purity and decreases singularity splitting by orders of magnitude. This technique also works to control and mitigate beam…
We propose and demonstrate a novel vortex Airy beam which is a superposition of an Airy beam and its laterally sheared beam with a $\pi/2$ phase shift. This new-type of vortex Airy beam exhibits stable propagation dynamics, wherein its…
We present a novel proposal to generate an optical vortex beam by using the coherent-superposition of multi-beams in a radial symmetrical configuration. In terms of the generalized Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral, we have derived the…
We explore the morphological properties of symmetric Airy beams in the paraxial and nonparaxial regimes. We consider a 2D electromagnetic realization with a single transverse component of the electric field, and in the nonparaxial regime,…
Airy beams are solutions to the paraxial Helmholtz equation known for exhibiting shape invariance along their self-accelerated propagation in free space. These two properties are associated with the fact that they are not square integrable,…
We consider a quantum optomechanical scheme wherein an ordered two-dimensional array of laser-trapped atoms is used as a movable membrane. The extremely light mass of the atoms yields very strong optomechanical coupling, while their spatial…
Optomechanical arrays made of structured flexible dielectrics are a promising system for exploring quantum and many-body optomechanical phenomena. We generalize investigations of the optomechanical properties of periodic arrays of…
Theory predicts that a plane wave scattered by a thin slab of gas yields, in the forward direction and under specific circumstances, a larger irradiance than would be observed in the absence of the gas. This enhanced Rayleigh scattering…
We investigate controllable spatial modulation of circular autofocusing Airy beams, under action of different dynamic linear potentials, both theoretically and numerically. We introduce a novel treatment method in which the circular Airy…
We illustrate the possibility of light trapping and funneling in periodic arrays of metallic nanoparticles. A controllable minimum in the transmission spectra of such constructs arises from a collective plasmon resonance phenomenon, where…