Gradient-induced long-range optical pulling force based on photonic band gap.

Light Sci Appl

Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Functional Materials and Devices, School of Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China.

Published: April 2024

Optical pulling provides a new degree of freedom in optical manipulation. It is generally believed that long-range optical pulling forces cannot be generated by the gradient of the incident field. Here, we theoretically propose and numerically demonstrate the realization of a long-range optical pulling force stemming from a self-induced gradient field in the manipulated object. In analogy to potential barriers in quantum tunnelling, we use a photonic band gap design in order to obtain the intensity gradients inside a manipulated object placed in a photonic crystal waveguide, thereby achieving a pulling force. Unlike the usual scattering-type optical pulling forces, the proposed gradient-field approach does not require precise elimination of the reflection from the manipulated objects. In particular, the Einstein-Laub formalism is applied to design this unconventional gradient force. The magnitude of the force can be enhanced by a factor of up to 50 at the optical resonance of the manipulated object in the waveguide, making it insensitive to absorption. The developed approach helps to break the limitation of scattering forces to obtain long-range optical pulling for manipulation and sorting of nanoparticles and other nano-objects. The developed principle of using the band gap to obtain a pulling force may also be applied to other types of waves, such as acoustic or water waves, which are important for numerous applications.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11039753PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01452-yDOI Listing

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