Coupling between axial and radial motions of microscopic particle trapped in the intracavity optical tweezers

Guangzong Xiao, Tengfang Kuang, Bin Luo, Wei Xiong, Xiang Han, Xinlin Chen, and Hui Luo

Intracavity optical tweezers have been proposed and demonstrated recently, which allows orders-of-magnitude higher optical confinement with lower-numerical-aperture lens and lower laser power in contrast to the standard optical tweezers. We further investigate its characteristics about the position stability of trapped particles. The dependence of the radial and axial position stability on the laser intensity acting on the particle of 10-µm diameter in intracavity optical tweezers and standard optical tweezers are compared experimentally. Result shows that higher laser intensity can make stronger optical confinement in intracavity optical tweezers under the condition of good trap operation, compared with standard optical tweezers. We demonstrate and analyze the coupling between the particle’s radial and axial motion, and then provide two approaches to reduce it. Our work will benefit the further enhancement of position stability for the trapped particle in intracavity optical tweezers.

DOI