Calculation of optical trapping forces on dielectric spheres at an oil-water interface with ray-optics model

Abstract

The transverse trapping forces on a dielectric sphere located at an oil-water interface are theoretically investigated with the ray-optics model. The transverse trapping forces rely on the internal property of the particle-interface system, and increase with either the decrease of three phase contact angles at the oil-water interface or the use of oil phase with low refractive index. The numerical results also show that the transverse trapping forces can be improved by either decreasing the numerical aperture of the microscope objective or shrinking the diameter of the trapping laser beam.