Calculation of optical forces for arbitrary light beams using the Fourier ray method.

Abstract

The ray-optics (RO) model is a reasonable method to calculate optical force in geometrical optics regime. However, the RO model fails to calculate the optical force produced by diffractive optical field and other arbitrary structured light beams. We propose the Fourier ray (FR) method to calculate the optical force for arbitrary incident beams. Combining the Fourier optics and the geometrical optics, the FRs are defined as rays that inlay on the plane waves weighted by the Fourier angular spectrum of the incident beam. According to traditional RO model and FR method, we can analyze optical forces on a microsphere immersed in various beams. To validate the FR method, forces of the fundamental Gaussian beam and Airy beam are respectively calculated and compared with traditional method. In addition, optical forces in three arbitrary structured light beams are demonstrated as well. Our simulations show that the FR method is able to evaluate the optical forces generated by diffractive optical field and complex structured light beams, and give a solid prediction of their trapping performances. In RO regime, the Fourier ray method is a universal method to predict the interaction between bead and complex optical field.