Optical vacuum cleaner by optomechanical manipulation of nanoparticles using nanostructured mesoscale dielectric cuboid

Yinghui Cao,Yuri E. Geints,Igor V. Minin,Oleg V. Minin,Zhenyu Liu,Alina Karabchevsky

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49277-9

Abstract

Here, we propose the concept of an “optical vacuum cleaner” for optomechanical manipulation of nanoparticles. We utilize a dielectric cuboid to generate an optical gradient force exerted on the nanoparticles for particle’s hovering and trapping. We show that the permittivity contrast between the particle and the nanohole leads to the deep subwavelength light confinement and enhancement at the opening of the nanohole located at the shadow surface of the particle. The proposed “optical vacuum cleaner” can be utilized in optomechanical manipulations on particles such as noble metal nanoparticles adsorbed on surfaces or controlling the particles taking part in cellular uptake.

Highlights

Overcoming the diffraction limit and localizing light on the subwavelength scale have a remarkable impact in the field of optics, with applications toward imaging, communication, and sensing systems
It has been reported that by means of a graded photonic crystal-based (PhC) lens, the focused light beam with a Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the beam-width is about λ/75 could be achieved[14]
It was reported that one can reduce the size of the focal spot of dielectric mesoscale sphere due to the nanohole located in its shadow surface

Summary

Light Focusing Properties of Dielectric Cuboid

Numerical simulation shows that, dielectric cuboid with a blind nanohole can be used to produce light spot with a little higher maximum intensity than that produced by cuboid with a penetrating hole similar to spherical particle[22] as shown in subplots of Fig. S2 from Supplementary Materials. It is worth noting that the nanohole-structured dielectric mesoscale particles possess several unique properties They are capable to produce light beam with high intensity and high optical power in the region of relatively lower refractive index (i.e., air). One cannot achieve this with the conventional PNJ generated from particles of the same sizes[19,20]. As light field is strongly confined in the nanohole, the proposed nanohole-structured dielectric cuboid can be used as near-field probe, or as a compact optical sensing device

Multipole Analysis of the Cuboid

Optical Vacuum Cleaner Concept

Conclusion

Methods

Author Contributions

Findings

Additional Information