Simulation of Optical Nano-Manipulation with Metallic Single and Dual Probe Irradiated by Polarized Near-Field Laser

Nano-manipulation technology, as a kind of “bottom-up” tool, has exhibited an excellent capacity in the field of measurement and fabrication on the nanoscale. Although variety manipulation methods based on probes and microscopes were proposed and widely used due to locating and imaging with high resolution, the development of non-contacted schemes for these methods is still indispensable to operate small objects without damage. However, optical manipulation, especially near-field trapping, is a perfect candidate for establishing brilliant manipulation systems. This paper reports about simulations on the electric and force fields at the tips of metallic probes irradiated by polarized laser outputted coming from a scanning near-field optical microscope probe. Distributions of electric and force field at the tip of a probe have proven that the polarized laser can induce nanoscale evanescent fields with high intensity, which arouse effective force to move nanoparticles. Moreover, schemes with dual probes are also presented and discussed in this paper. Simulation results indicate that different combinations of metallic probes and polarized lasers will provide diverse near-field and corresponding optical force. With the suitable direction of probes and polarization direction, the dual probe exhibits higher trapping force and wider effective wavelength range than a single probe. So, these results give more novel and promising selections for realizing optical manipulation in experiments, so that distinguished multi-functional manipulation systems can be developed.

Optical metasurfaces for generating and manipulating optical vortex beams

Optical vortices (OVs) carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have attracted considerable interest in the field of optics and photonics owing to their peculiar optical features and extra degree of freedom for carrying information. Although there have been significant efforts to realize OVs using conventional optics, it is limited by large volume, high cost, and lack of design flexibility. Optical metasurfaces have recently attracted tremendous interest due to their unprecedented capability in the manipulation of the amplitude, phase, polarization, and frequency of light at a subwavelength scale. Optical metasurfaces have revolutionized design concepts in photonics, providing a new platform to develop ultrathin optical devices for the realization of OVs at subwavelength resolution. In this article, we will review the recent progress in optical metasurface-based OVs. We provide a comprehensive discussion on the optical manipulation of OVs, including OAM superposition, OAM sorting, OAM multiplexing, OAM holography, and nonlinear metasurfaces for OAM generation and manipulation. The rapid development of metasurface for OVs generation and manipulation will play an important role in many relevant research fields. We expect that metasurface will fuel the continuous progress of wearable and portable consumer electronics and optics where low-cost and miniaturized OAM related systems are in high demand.

Lieb's Theorem and Maximum Entropy Condensates

Coherent driving has established itself as a powerful tool for guiding a many-body quantum system into a desirable, coherent non-equilibrium state. A thermodynamically large system will, however, almost always saturate to a featureless infinite temperature state under continuous driving and so the optical manipulation of many-body systems is considered feasible only if a transient, prethermal regime exists, where heating is suppressed. Here we show that, counterintuitively, in a broad class of lattices Floquet heating can actually be an advantageous effect. Specifically, we prove that the maximum entropy steady states which form upon driving the ground state of the Hubbard model on unbalanced bi-partite lattices possess uniform off-diagonal long-range order which remains finite even in the thermodynamic limit. This creation of a `hot' condensate can occur on any driven unbalanced lattice and provides an understanding of how heating can, at the macroscopic level, expose and alter the order in a quantum system. We discuss implications for recent experiments observing emergent superconductivity in photoexcited materials.

Optical Pulling Using Chiral Metalens as a Photonic Probe

Optical pulling forces, which can pull objects in the source direction, have emerged as an intensively explored field in recent years. Conventionally, optical pulling forces exerted on objects can be achieved by tailoring the properties of an electromagnetic field, the surrounding environment, or the particles themselves. Recently, the idea of applying conventional lenses or prisms as photonic probes has been proposed to realize an optical pulling force. However, their sizes are far beyond the scope of optical manipulation. Here, we design a chiral metalens as the photonic probe to generate a robust optical pulling force. The induced pulling force exerted on the metalens, characterized by a broadband spectrum over 0.6 μm (from 1.517 to 2.117 μm) bandwidth, reached a maximum value of −83.76 pN/W. Moreover, under the illumination of incident light with different circular polarization states, the longitudinal optical force acting on the metalens showed a circular dichroism response. This means that the longitudinal optical force can be flexibly tuned from a pulling force to a pushing force by controlling the polarization of the incident light. This work could pave the way for a new advanced optical manipulation technique, with potential applications ranging from contactless wafer-scale fabrication to cell assembly and even course control for spacecraft.

An innovative optical context to make honeybees crash repeatedly

To investigate altitude control in honeybees, an optical context was designed to make honeybees crash. It has been widely accepted that honeybees rely on the optic flow generated by the ground to control their altitude. However, identifying an optical context capable of uncorrelating forward speed from altitude in honeybees’ flight was the first step towards enhancing the optical context to better understand altitude control in honeybees. This optical context aims to put honeybees in the same flight conditions as an open sky flight above mirror-smooth water. An optical manipulation, based on a pair of opposed horizontal mirrors, was designed to remove any visual information coming from the floor and ceiling. Such an optical manipulation reproduced quantitatively the seminal experiment of Heran & Lindauer (1963), and revealed that honeybees control their altitude by detecting the optic flow with a visual field that extends to approximately 165°.

Singular Warped Beams Controlled by Tangent Phase Modulation

We analyze the effect of spatial phase modulation using non-linear functions applied to singular warped beams to control their topological states and intensity distribution. Such beams are candidates for optical trapping and particle manipulation for their controllable pattern of intensities and singularities. We first simulate several kinds of warped beams to analyze their intensity profiles and propagation characteristics. Secondly, we experimentally validate the simulations and investigate the far-field profiles. By calculating the intensity gradients, we describe how these beams are qualified candidates for optical manipulation and trapping.

Parabolic-accelerating vector waves

Complex vector light fields have become a topic of late due to their exotic features, such as their non-homogeneous transverse polarisation distributions and the non-separable coupling between their spatial and polarisation degrees of freedom (DoF). In general, vector beams propagate in free space along straight lines, being the Airy-vector vortex beams the only known exception. Here, we introduce a new family of vector beams that exhibit novel properties that have not been observed before, such as their ability to freely accelerate along parabolic trajectories. In addition, their transverse polarisation distribution only contains polarisation states oriented at exactly the same angle but with different ellipticity. We anticipate that these novel vector beams might not only find applications in fields such as optical manipulation, microscopy or laser material processing but also extend to others.