Interaction of circularly polarized light with an absorptive electromagnetic conductor sphere – Radiation force and spin torque

Abstract

The concept of a perfect electromagnetic conductor (PEMC) material, which is a class of a magneto-electric metamaterial, has been recently examined in the context of the optical radiation force theory [J. Quant. Spectr. Rad. Transfer, 233 (2019) 21–28; ibid 256 (2020) 107280], with particular emphasis on the rotary polarization effect and the contribution of the cross-polarized waves to the transfer of linear momentum, assuming an illumination of linearly-polarized plane progressive waves. The present investigation shows that additional cross-interference factors, which cannot be ignored, contribute to the time-averaged optical radiation force exerted on an absorptive electromagnetic conductor (AEMC) sphere when the incident field becomes circularly-polarized. Moreover, the analysis is extended to investigate the co-polarized, cross-polarized and cross-interference components of the time-averaged optical spin radiation torque. The multipole series expansion method in spherical coordinates is utilized to derive exact mathematical partial-wave series for the co-polarized, cross-polarized and cross-interference components of the radiation force and torque based on the integration of Maxwell’s radiation stress tensor and its moment over a spherical surface of large radius enclosing the sphere suspended in a lossless medium of wave propagation. Numerical results for the radiation force and spin torque efficiencies and their corresponding co-polarized, cross-polarized and cross-interference components illustrate the analysis with emphasis on the size parameter of the sphere ka, its electromagnetic admittance M as well as its imaginary part amounting to absorption. The computations are of importance from the standpoint of the fundamentals of the linear and angular momenta of circularly-polarized electromagnetic waves transferred to an AEMC and related applications in optical tweezers and particle manipulation of objects exhibiting circular dichroism.