Material-Independent and Size-Independent Tractor Beams for Dipole Objects

Novitsky, Andrey; Qiu, Cheng‐Wei; Lavrinenko, Andrei V.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.109.023902

Cited by 89 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Generally speaking, a tractor beam is a customized light beam that exerts a negative scattering force (NSF) on a scatterer and pulls it opposite to the propagation direction of the light, in contrast to conventional pushing forces. 14 Optical pulling forces provide a novel approach to gradientless optical manipulation techniques distinct from optical tweezers, [15][16][17] optical conveyors 13,18,19 and nanooptomechanical systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon momentum transfer in inhomogeneous dielectric mixtures and induced tractor beams

et al. 2015

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The determination of optical force as a consequence of momentum transfer is inevitably subject to the use of the proper momentum density and stress tensor. It is imperative and valuable to consider the intrinsic scheme of photon momentum transfer, particularly when a particle is embedded in a complex dielectric environment. Typically, we consider a particle submerged in an inhomogeneous background composed of different dielectric materials, excluding coherent illumination or hydrodynamic effects. A ray-tracing method is adopted to capture the direct process of momentum transfer from the complex background medium, and this approach is validated using the modified Einstein-Laub method, which uses only the interior fields of the particle in the calculation. In this way, debates regarding the calculation of the force with different stress tensors using exterior fields can be avoided. Our suggested interpretation supports only the Minkowski approach for the optical momentum transfer to the embedded scatterer while rejecting Peierls's and Abraham's approaches, though the momentum of a stably moving photon in a continuous background medium should be considered to be of the Abraham type. Our interpretation also provides a novel method of realizing a tractor beam for the exertion of negative force that offers an alternative to the use of negative-index materials, optical gain, or highly non-paraxial or multiple-light interference. Keywords: dielectric interface; Minkowski photon momentum transfer; modified Einstein-Laub method; optical pulling force; optical tractor beams INTRODUCTIONFollowing the pioneering work of Marston 1 in acoustics, optical 'tractor beams' have attracted considerable interest by virtue of their unusual mechanism for micromanipulation. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Generally speaking, a tractor beam is a customized light beam that exerts a negative scattering force (NSF) on a scatterer and pulls it opposite to the propagation direction of the light, in contrast to conventional pushing forces. 14 Optical pulling forces provide a novel approach to gradientless optical manipulation techniques distinct from optical tweezers, 15-17 optical conveyors 13,18,19 and nanooptomechanical systems. 20,21 Recently, various types of tractor beams have been experimentally demonstrated using a Gaussian beam with an optical mirror (involving the interference of incident and reflected light beams in certain limited regions) 8 and using dodecane droplets sitting on a dielectric interface. 22 However, in the presence of a high-powered laser, hydrodynamic effects (uneven heat dissipation, particle absorption, temperature gradients, liquid convection, surface energy wells, etc.) may also contribute. Moreover, the stability criteria for tractor beams, which are very important for practical application, have not yet been investigated.Although the mechanical effect has been demonstrated 22 to be an overall consequence of all possible contributing factors, the mechanism of the optical momentum transfer from a mixe...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon momentum transfer in inhomogeneous dielectric mixtures and induced tractor beams

et al. 2015

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“…A necessary condition for realizing an optical tractor beam is that α e and α m should be similar [8,9,20,21]. In this case, the potential is identical to a two-dimensional harmonic oscillator.…”

Section: Optical Forces Exerted By Bessel Beamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, the Bessel beam with the strongest pulling force for a given incident power is a first-order Bessel beam with electric field E 1 characterized by m = 1, c 1 = 1, and c 2 = i [9,[19][20][21]. This beam will be referred to as a circularly polarized tractor beam, since the electric field is right-handed circularly polarized near the axis.…”

Section: A Circularly Polarized Tractor Beammentioning

confidence: 99%

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Generating stable tractor beams with dielectric metasurfaces

Pfeiffer

Grbic

2015

Phys. Rev. B

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Propagation invariant beams that pull objects towards a light source are commonly known as tractor beams. Here, an efficient linearly polarized tractor beam with improved stability is introduced. The beam consists of a superposition of TE and TM polarized Bessel beams of orders m = +1 and m = −1. It is shown that this beam can stably pull a wide range of dielectric microparticles arbitrarily long distances, independent of ambient conditions. Next, a straightforward method of generating these high performance beams is proposed. A Si metasurface transforms an incident linearly polarized Gaussian beam into the desired tractor beam. Full-wave simulations demonstrate that it is possible for this simple geometry to pull a polystyrene sphere a distance equal to the non-diffracting range of the Bessel beam. The simplicity of the setup and the robust performance of the proposed tractor beam significantly enhance the ability to manipulate matter with light.

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“…One method is to engineer the optical beams. Engineered beams include non-paraxial Bessel beams [34,35] and superpositions ofplane waves or Bessel beams [36][37][38]. The other method is to use some special kind of materials, such as gain materials [39,40], negative refractive index materials [41], optomagnetic materials [42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering light-matter interaction for emerging optical manipulation applications

et al. 2014

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Abstract:In this review, we explore recent trends in optical micromanipulation by engineering light-matter interaction and controlling the mechanical effects of optical fields. One central theme is exploring the rich phenomena beyond the now established precision measurements based on trapping micro beads with tightly focused beams. Novel synthesized beams, exploiting the linear and angular momentum of light, open new possibilities in optical trapping and micromanipulation. Similarly, novel structures are promising to enable new optical micromanipulation modalities. Moreover, an overview of the amazing features of the optics of tractor beams and backward-directed energy fluxes will be presented. Recently the so-called effect of negative propagation of the beams (existence of the backward energy fluxes) has been confirmed for X-waves and Airy beams. In the review, we will also discuss the negative pulling force of structured beams and negative energy fluxes in the vicinity of fibers. The effect is achieved due to the interaction of multipoles or, in another interpretation, the momentum conservation. Both backward-directed Poynting vector and backward optical forces are counter-intuitive and give an insight into new physics and technologies. Exploiting the degrees of freedom in synthesizing novel beams and designed microstructures offer attractive prospects for emerging optical manipulation applications.

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Material-Independent and Size-Independent Tractor Beams for Dipole Objects

Cited by 89 publications

References 22 publications

Photon momentum transfer in inhomogeneous dielectric mixtures and induced tractor beams

Photon momentum transfer in inhomogeneous dielectric mixtures and induced tractor beams

Generating stable tractor beams with dielectric metasurfaces

Engineering light-matter interaction for emerging optical manipulation applications

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