We report a dramatic enhancement of the lateral optical forces induced on electrically polarizable Rayleigh particles near hyperbolic and extremely anisotropic metasurfaces under simple plane wave illumination. Such enhancement is enabled by the interplay between the increased density of states provided by these structures and the out-of-plane polarization spin acquired by the particle.
The resulting giant lateral forces appear over a broad frequency range and may openunprecedented venues for routing, trapping, and assembling nanoparticles. PACS: 32.10.Dk, 42.25.Fx, 73.20.Mf, 78.67.Wj Light-induced forces have led to many exciting applications in nanotechnology and bioengineering by trapping, pushing, pulling, binding and manipulating nanoparticles and biological samples [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Recently, the emergence of nano-optical plasmonic configurations has been exploited to boost the strength of optical forces at the nano-scale by exciting surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) [9][10][11][12], which are confined electromagnetic waves traveling along dielectricmetal interfaces [13]. In fact, illuminating with light an electric, non-magnetic, Rayleigh particle (with radius r < λ 0 /20, being 0 the wavelength) located above a metallic surface like gold or