Optical trapping of nanoparticles by full solid-angle focusing

Vsevolod Salakhutdinov, Markus Sondermann, Luigi Carbone, Elisabeth Giacobino, Alberto Bramati, and Gerd Leuchs

Optical dipole traps are used for trapping and localizing particles in various scientific fields, including classical optics, quantum optics, and biophysics. Here, we propose and implement a dipole trap for nanoparticles that is based on focusing from the full solid angle with a deep parabolic mirror. The key aspect is the generation of a linear-dipole mode, which is predicted to provide a tight trapping potential. We demonstrate the trapping of rod-shaped nanoparticles and validate the trapping frequencies to be of the order of the expected ones. The described realization of an optical trap is applicable for various other kinds of solid-state targets. The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of optical dipole traps that simultaneously provide high trap stiffness and allow for efficient interaction of light and matter in free space.

DOI