Computational study of optical force between two nanodistant plasmonic submicrowires

Masoud Rezvani Jalal and Saba Fathollahi

In this paper, the optical force between two circular plasmonic wires of submicrometer diameter (0.3 μm) with nanometer surface-to-surface distances (3–30 nm) interacting with radiation of a complex point source (𝜆≈0.2λ≈0.2 μm) is numerically studied. Calculations (which are based on the Müller integral equations and the Maxwell stress tensor) show that an attractive optical force with a number of distinct peaks is created in distances 3–10 nm. However, for plasmonic–dielectric and plasmonic–reflector double-wires, the optical force has no such peaks. Comparisons reveal that the peaks are originated from the excitation of coupled surface plasmon polaritons in the gap region between the plasmonic wires.

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