Coarse-grained particle dynamics along helical orbit by an optical vortex irradiated in photocurable resins

Ryo Nagura, Tempei Tsujimura, Tetsuro Tsuji, Kentaro Doi, and Satoyuki Kawano

Optical vortices, which carry orbital angular momentum, have attracted much attention in various research fields, such as materials processing, chirality control, and particle manipulation. A recent study experimentally confirmed that twisted fibers of polymerized photocurable resins with a constant period can be formed via irradiation by an optical vortex. It is suspected that this phenomenon is caused by the projection of the angular momentum of an optical vortex to the photocurable resin. The detailed mechanism of the growth of such peculiar fibers has not yet been clarified. In this study, which focuses on one aspect of polymerized structure formation, we develop a coarse-grained particle model in which the particle dynamics in the framework of the Rayleigh scattering theory involving light absorption is theoretically simulated. The period of the twisted fibers expressed using the coarse-grained particles is found to be in reasonable agreement with experimental values and independent of the input power of the laser. In addition, the shape of the polymerized fibers can be controlled by modulating the degree of light absorption.

DOI