Related papers: Tractor beams with optimal pulling force using str…

It is shown that in a large class of systems plane waves can act as tractor beams: i.e., an incident plane wave can exert a pulling force on the scatterer. The underlying physical mechanism for the pulling force is due to the sufficiently…

Optical pulling forces or tractor beams can pull particles against light propagation by redirecting the incident photons forward. This is typically achieved using Bessel beams with very small half-cone angles, which considerably limits its…

Can one send a wave to bring an object from a distance? The general idea is inspired by the recent success in moving micro particles using light and the development of a tractor beam concept. For fluid surfaces, however, the only known…

Light and sound waves have the fascinating property that they can move objects through the transfer of linear or angular momentum. This ability has led to the development of optical and acoustic tweezers, with applications ranging from…

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…

Radiation forces and torques enable the manipulation of objects with acoustic and electromagnetic waves. Yet, harnessing them in complex scattering media remains a formidable challenge, especially when multiple objects must be controlled…

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 suggest a novel mechanism to induce the motion of a chiral material body towards an optical source. Our solution is based on the interference between a chiral light beam and its reflection on an opaque mirror. Surprisingly, it is…

Structured beams of light can move small objects in surprising ways. Particularly striking examples include observations of polarization-dependent forces acting on optically isotropic objects and tractor beams that can pull objects opposite…

An oscillating body floating at the water surface produces a wave-field of self-generated waves. When the oscillation induces a difference in fore-aft wave amplitude squared, these self-generated waves can be used as a mechanism to propel…

The area of trapping the atoms or molecules using light has advanced tremendously in the last few decades. In contrast, the idea of controlling (not only trapping) the movement of atomic-sized particles using quantum mechanical matter waves…

Optically levitated particles have great potential to form the basis of novel quantum- enhanced sensors. These systems are very well suited for inertial sensing, as the particles are isolated from the environment when they are levitated at…

Waves impart momentum and exert force on obstacles in their path. The transfer of wave momentum is a fundamental mechanism for contactless manipulation, yet the rules of conventional scattering intrinsically limit the radiation force based…

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,…

When an optical beam propagates through a turbulent medium such as the atmosphere or ocean, the beam will become distorted. It is then natural to seek the best or optimal beam that is distorted least, under some metric such as intensity or…

Optical micro-manipulation and trapping of micro-particles delivers a mechanical system in direct interaction with a beam of light. In this interaction, the optical properties such as polarisation, beam profile and wavelength of the…

Optical fibers confine and guide light almost unattenuated and thus convey light forces to polarizable nano-particles over very long distances. Radiation pressure forces arise from scattering of guided photons into free space while gradient…

Structured light harnessing multiple degrees of freedom has become a powerful approach to use complex states of light in fundamental studies and applications. Here, we investigate the light field of an ultrafast laser beam with a…

In this paper, we concern the generation of attractive net motion with respect to the location of external wave source for active spherical carriers. Here we recall that the exerted acoustic radiation force in an acoustic field, resulting…

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…