We report an ingenious mechanism to obtain robust optical pulling force by a single plane wave via engineering the topology of light momentum in the background. The underlying physics is found to be the topological transition of the light momentum from a usual convex shape to a starlike concave shape in the carefully designed background, such as a photonic crystal structure. The principle and results reported here shed insightful concepts concerning optical pulling, and pave the way for a new class of advanced optical manipulation technique, with potential applications of drug delivery and cell sorting.

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Multi-functional optical manipulations, including optical trapping and transporting of subwavelength particles, are proposed using the Bloch modes in a dielectric photonic structure. We show that the Bloch modes in a periodic structure can generate a series of subwavelength trapping wells that are addressable by tuning the incident wavelength. This feature enables efficient optical trapping and transportation in a peristaltic way. Since we are using the guiding Bloch mode in a dielectric structure, rather than using plasmonic or dielectric resonant cavities, these operations are wide band and free from joule loss. The Bloch mode in a simple periodic dielectric structure provides a new platform for multi-functional optical operations and may find potential applications in nanophotonics and biomedicine.

We develop a hydrofluoric (HF) etching process to open a microhole on the hollow glass microsphere (HGM). The typical whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonance was observed by coupling the HGM with a tapered fiber. Dioctyl phthalate was filled into the HGM, and the resonance wavelength decreased at elevated temperatures. We analyzed the WGM resonance properties inside the liquid-filled HGM with a higher or lower refractive index in comparison to the HGM wall. Four different liquids were also injected into the HGM to investigate the influence of the thermo-optic coefficient on the temperature sensitivity. Size-dependent experiments further showed that HGMs with varying sizes have varying temperature sensitivity. The maximum temperature sensitivity observed was 334.3  pm/°C.

An all-optical tunable whispering gallery mode (WGM) lasing from the liquid-filled hollow glass microsphere (LFHGM) is proposed and experimentally verified. The LFHGM-based microlaser is prepared by injecting N a N d F 4 / d y e co-doped liquid into the HGM, and WGM resonance is obtained under excitation of a 532 nm pulse laser. Since the high-efficiency absorption of the 793 nm continuous-wave laser by N a N d F 4 nanocrystals (NCs) can result in photothermal effect-induced effective refractive index change of the microcavity, a secondary 793 nm laser is irradiated into the LFHGM to excite the N a N d F 4 dispersed in the liquid core, thereby realizing a shift of resonant frequencies. The influence of the doping concentration of N a N d F 4 NCs on the tuning range and the sensitivity over the power intensity range of 0 − 1. 68 W / m m 2 are investigated experimentally, obtaining maximum values of 4.95 and 2 . 95 n m / ( W m m − 2 ) . The ability to generate stable lasing in a LFHGM cavity highlights the practical application of the microscale lasers in future all-optical networks.