All-dielectric structure for trapping nanoparticles via light funneling and nanofocusing

Abstract

We propose a dielectric structure which focuses the laser light well beyond the diffraction limit and thus considerably enhances the exerted optical trapping force upon dielectric nanoparticles. Although the structure supports a Fabry-Perot resonance, it actually acts as a nanoantenna in that the role of the resonance is to funnel the laser light into the structure. In comparison with the lens illuminating the structure, the proposed structure offers roughly a 10000-fold enhancement in the trapping force - part of this enhancement comes from an 80-fold enhancement in the field intensity, and the remaining comes from a 130-fold enhancement in the normalized gradient of the field intensity (viz. the gradient of the field intensity divided by the field intensity). Also, the proposed structure offers roughly a 100-fold enhancement in the depth of the trapping potential. It is noteworthy that 'self-induced back-action trapping' (SIBA), which has recently been the focus of interest in the context of optical resonators, does not take place in the proposed resonator. In this paper, we also point out some misconceptions about SIBA together with some hitherto unappreciated subtleties of the dipole approximation.