Tailored leaky plasmon waves from a subwavelength aperture for optical particle trapping on a chip

M. S. Muradoglu, Tuck Wah Ng, Adrian Neild, and Ian Gralinski

Optical forces available on a chip that possess features of strong trapping at the subwavelength scale, in a coplanar geometry, and at specific and selective locations portend many useful applications. We demonstrate here a two-pronged approach to accomplish this. First, the plasmon fields emanating from a subwavelength aperture are manipulated so that they leak maximally to the sides on a surface through the use of tailored corrugations. Second, the location of secondary corrugation at some distance permits reflection of these leaky waves, which, with the coherence property of light used, generate optical standing wave fields capable of strong optical trapping. The linear optical forces generated with this scheme are presented here.

DOI