Related papers: Trapping multiple absorbing particles in air using…
Since the early work by Ashkin in 1970, optical trapping has become one of the most powerful tools for manipulating small particles, such as micron sized beads or single atoms. The optical trapping mechanism is based on the interaction…
Optically-levitated nanoparticles in vacuum offer a pristine platform for high-quality mechanical oscillators, enabling a wide range of precision measurements and quantum technologies. A key performance metric in such systems is the…
We analyze a trapping reaction with a single penetrable trap, in a one dimensional lattice, where both species (particles and trap) are mobile and have a drift velocity. We obtain the density as seen from a reference system attached to the…
Optical trapping techniques are an efficient way to probe limited quantities of rare isotopes. In order to achieve the highest possible measurement precision, it is critical to optimize the optical trapping efficiency. This work presents…
We present a theoretical model describing recently observed collective effects in large magneto-optically trapped atomic ensembles. Based on a kinetic description we develop an efficient test particle method, which in addition to the single…
While conventional optical trapping techniques can trap objects with submicron dimensions, the underlying limits imposed by the diffraction of light generally restrict their use to larger or higher refractive index particles. As the index…
We use the T-matrix formalism in combination with the method of far-field matching to evaluate the optical force exerted by Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) light beams on a spherical (Mie) particle. For both non-vortex and optical vortex LG beams,…
A scheme for fast, compact, and controllable acceleration of heavy particles in vacuum is proposed, in which two counterpropagating lasers with variable frequencies drive a beat-wave structure with variable phase velocity, thus allowing for…
The evanescent field outside an optical nanofiber (ONF) can create optical traps for neutral atoms. We present a non-destructive method to characterize such trapping potentials. An off-resonance linearly polarized probe beam that propagates…
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…
Near-fields around nanophotonic structures and waveguides can be used to optically interface particles ranging from atoms and molecules to microscopic biological and synthetic particles. Due to the strong, non-linear dependence of the…
We investigate dynamics and interactions of particles levitated and trapped by the thermophoretic force in a vacuum cell. Our analysis is based on footage taken by orthogonal cameras that are able to capture the three dimensional…
Laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of molecules typically involves multiple transitions driven by several laser frequencies. We analyze how magneto-optical trapping forces depend on the angular momenta, $F_l$ and $F_u$, and the…
Magneto-optical traps are central to atomic and molecular quantum technologies and precision tests of fundamental physics, where both sensitivity and bandwidth scale strongly with atom number and loading rate. We demonstrate that employing…
The force field of optical tweezers is commonly assumed to be conservative, neglecting the complex action of the scattering force. Using a novel method that extracts local forces from trajectories of an optically trapped particle, we…
Optical pulling with tractor beams is so far highly dependent on (i) the property of embedding background or the particle itself , (ii) the number of the particles and/or (iii) the manual ramping of beam phase. A necessary theoretical…
The Airy array beams are attractive for optical manipulation of particles owing to their non-diffraction and auto-focusing properties. An Airy array beams is composed of $N$ Airy beams which accelerate mutually and symmetrically in opposite…
Collective coherent light scattering by polarizable particles creates surprisingly strong, long range inter-particle forces originating from interference of the light scattered by different particles. While for monochromatic laser beams…
We show that at low pressures the spectral widths of the power spectra of laser-trapped particles are nearly independent from pressures and, due to the nonlinearities of the trap, reflect the thermal distribution of particles. In the…
We report on a stable optical trap suitable for a macroscopic mirror, wherein the dynamics of the mirror are fully dominated by radiation pressure. The technique employs two frequency-offset laser fields to simultaneously create a stiff…