Related papers: Tailoring optical pulling forces with composite mi…
Arthur Ashkin was awarded the 2018 Nobel prize in physics for the invention of optical tweezers. Since the first publication in 1986 Optical Tweezers have been used as a tool to measure forces and rheological properties of microscopic…
Light can exert radiation pressure on any object it encounters and that resulting optical force can be used to manipulate particles. It is commonly assumed that light should move a particle forward and indeed an incident plane wave with a…
Optical tweezers, with their high precision, dynamic control, and non-invasiveness, are increasingly important in scientific research and applications at the micro and nano scales. However, manipulation by optical tweezers is challenged by…
Optical tweezers and optical lattices are making it possible to control small particles by means of electromagnetic forces and torques. In this context, a method is presented in this work to calculate electromagnetic forces and torques for…
We discuss optical forces exerted on particles, either dielectric or metallic, near a subwavelength slit illuminated by a photonic nanojet. We compare those cases in which the Mie resonances are or are not excited. The configurations on…
The conventional formulation of power absorption, optical forces, and torques on dipolar particles involve lenghty and cumbersome expressions that obscure their shared physical origin. We apply a bispinor formalism that unifies these…
Acoustic Bessel beams are known to produce an axial radiation force on a sphere centered on the beam axis (on-axial configuration) that exhibits both "pressor" and "tractor" behaviors. The pressor and the tractor forces are oriented along…
Optical tweezers are powerful tools based on focused laser beams. They are able to trap, manipulate and investigate a wide range of microscopic and nanoscopic particles in different media, such as liquids, air, and vacuum. Key applications…
A different paradigm is proposed to selectively manipulate and transport small engineered chiral particles and discriminate different enantiomers using unstructured chiral light. It is theoretically shown that the response of a chiral…
We theoretically investigate collision of optical beams travelling in opposite directions through a centrosymmetric photorefractive crystal biased by a spatially non-uniform voltage. We analytically predict the fusion of counterpropagating…
Using light to manipulate small particles is a powerful tool with numerous practical applications across biophysics and nanotechnology. This experimental technique has achieved significant performance gains by employing shaped wavefronts,…
This paper aims to maximize optical force and torque on arbitrary micro- and nano-scale objects using numerically optimized structured illumination. By developing a numerical framework for computer-automated design of 3d vector-field…
A circularly polarized electromagnetic plane wave carries an electric field that rotates clockwise or counterclockwise around the propagation direction of the wave. According to the handedness of this rotation, its \emph{longitudinal} spin…
Tailored time-dependent variations of the transverse profile together with longitudinal phase shifts of laser beams are studied. It is shown theoretically that a standing wave setup and real-time beam forming techniques (e.g. by…
Lightsails are a promising spacecraft concept that can reach relativistic speeds via propulsion by laser light, allowing travel to nearby stars within a human lifetime. The success of a lightsail mission requires that any motion in the…
Superposition of two independent orthogonally polarized beams is a conventional principle of creating a new light beam. Here, we intend to achieve the inverse process, namely, extracting inherent polarization modes from a single light beam.…
Near-field patterns of light provide a way to optically trap, deliver and sort single nanoscopic particles in a wide variety of applications in nanophotonics, microbiology and nanotechnology. Using rigorous electromagnetic theory, we…
We investigate lateral recoil forces exerted on nanoparticles located near plasmonic platforms with in-plane nonreciprocal response. To this purpose, we first develop a comprehensive theoretical framework based on the Lorentz force within…
Recent developments in the understanding of optical angular momentum have resulted in many demonstrations of unusual optical phenomena, such as optical beams with orbital angular momentum and transverse spinning light. Here we detail novel…
We analyze numerically the correspondence between the mechanical action, experienced by a spherical microparticle, and the internal energy flows as well as spatial and polarization inhomogeneity of the light field incident on the particle.…