Manipulation of Dielectric Rayleigh Particles using Highly Focused Elliptically Polarized Vector Fields

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2015

Publication Source

Applied Optics

Abstract

Generation of vectorial optical fields with arbitrary polarization distribution is of great interest in areas where exotic optical fields are desired. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the versatile generation of linearly polarized vector fields, elliptically polarized vector fields, and circularly polarized vortex beams through introducing attenuators in a common-path interferometer. By means of Richards–Wolf vectorial diffraction method, the characteristics of the highly focused elliptically polarized vector fields are studied.

The optical force and torque on a dielectric Rayleigh particle produced by these tightly focused vector fields are calculated and exploited for the stable trapping of dielectric Rayleigh particles. It is shown that the additional degree of freedom provided by the elliptically polarized vector field allows one to control the spatial structure of polarization, to engineer the focusing field, and to tailor the optical force and torque on a dielectric Rayleigh particle.

Inclusive pages

8123-8129

ISBN/ISSN

1559-128X

Comments

Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Optical Society of America

Volume

54

Issue

27

Peer Reviewed

yes


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