Abstract
Emerging nano-optofluidic devices have allowed a synergetic relation between photonic integrated circuits and microfluidics, allowing manipulation and transport at the realm of nanoscale science. Simultaneously, optical gradient forces have allowed highly precise control of mechanical motion in nano-optomechanical devices. In this report, we show that the repulsive optical forces of the antisymmetric eigenmodes in an optomechanical device, based on a slot-waveguide structure, increases as the refraction index of the fluid medium increases. This effect provides a feasible way to tailor the repulsive optical forces when these nano-optomechanical devices are immersed in dielectric liquids. Furthermore, the total control of the attractive and repulsive optical forces inside liquids may be applied to design novel nanophotonic devices, containing both microfluidic and nanomechanical functionalities, which may find useful applications in several areas, such as biomedical sensors, manipulators and sorters, amongst others.
Highlights
Advances in nanosciences and nanotechnologies have emphasized the need for new manipulation and transport techniques at nanoscale
In a dielectric planar slot waveguide, the symmetric modes lead to attractive forces, whereas the antisymmetric ones lead to repulsive forces[10,11]
We have described the behavior of optical forces in rectangular slot waveguides, as the refractive index of the fluid cladding medium varies
Summary
Advances in nanosciences and nanotechnologies have emphasized the need for new manipulation and transport techniques at nanoscale. In order to overcome these challenges, a wide variety of methods have been proposed; amongst these, the light-matter interaction methods have been drawing attention as, for instance, optofluidic devices[1,2]. These devices have merged, in a synergic manner, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with optofluidic transport, for chemistry and biological applications[3]. Optofluidic devices based on silicon slot waveguides immersed in water have been successfully applied for manipulating and transporting dielectric nanoparticles and DNA molecules using infrared light[4,5,6]. We show that it is possible to decrease and even eliminate the cross-over gap, by immersing the nanowaveguide structures in appropriate dielectric fluid media, making it possible to tailor the repulsive optical forces
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