Light is able to remotely move matter. Among various driving forces, laser-induced metal sphere migration in glass has been reported. The temperature on the laser-illuminated side of the sphere was higher than that on the non-illuminated side. This temperature gradient caused non-uniformity in the interfacial tension between the glass and the melted metal as the tension decreased with increasing temperature. In the present study, we investigated laser-induced metal sphere migration in different glasses using thermal flow calculations, considering the temperature dependence of the material parameters. In addition, the velocity of the glass flow generated by the metal sphere migration was measured and compared with thermal flow calculations. The migration velocity of the stainless steel sphere increased with increasing laser power density; the maximum velocity was 104 μm/s in borosilicate glass and 47 μm/s in silica glass. The sphere was heated to more than 2000 K. The temperature gradient of the interfacial tension between the stainless steel sphere and the glass was calculated to be −2.29 × 10−5 N/m/K for borosilicate glass and −2.06 × 10−5 N/m/K for silica glass. Glass flowed in the region 15–30 μm from the surface of the sphere, and the 80-μm sphere migrated in a narrow softened channel.

A high-power continuous-wave (CW) laser was used to move a steel microsphere through a CaO-AlO-SiO glass block at room temperature along a trajectory toward the laser source. A compositional analysis revealed that the CaO concentration in the glass decreased at the center of the microsphere's trajectory but increased in the area adjacent to it; the SiO concentration showed an opposite trend while the AlO concentration did not change. Further, the compositional difference between the center and the area adjacent to the microsphere trajectory depends on the velocity of the microsphere, which is controllable by tuning the laser power.

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Laser illumination on a nickel sphere in silica glass has shown to migrate the sphere towards the light source with a nickel nanoparticle precipitated around the sphere. The selective nanoparticle precipitation by Invar 42 sphere migration in silica glass is reported. An Invar sphere is implanted into glass by laser illumination of an Invar foil. In addition to the sphere migration in glass, stripes are formed along the trajectory of the sphere. The stripes consist of metal nanoparticles with a diameter of several hundred nanometres. Nanoparticles precipitated on the laserilluminated side are composed only of nickel and those on the nonilluminated side are composed of nickel and iron alloys. The reason for the difference in components is discussed.