Transverse optical forces for manipulating nanoparticles

Abstract

We study optical forces acting on a subwavelength particle with anisotropic polarizability and discover an optomechanical effect that resembles the Hall effect for electrons. While in the classical Hall effect the transverse Lorentz force and the transverse voltage appear due to the static magnetic field which induces the nondiagonal components of the electric conductivity tensor; in our case the imaginary parts of the nondiagonal elements of the polarizability tensor are responsible for the transverse scattering force. We calculate this force for the examples of the ellipsoidal plasmonic nanoparticles and the spherical particle with gyromagnetic properties, and show that the transverse force depends on the physical origin of the anisotropy of the polarizability, and on the electromagnetic wave structure around the particle. Moreover, this force primarily occurs in the inhomogeneous field only.