Optical radiation force on a dielectric sphere of arbitrary size illuminated by a linearly polarized Airy light-sheet

Ningning Song, Renxian Li, Han Sun, Jiaming Zhang, Bojian Wei, Shu Zhang, F.G. Mitri

Based on the generalized Lorenz–Mie theory (GLMT) and the angular spectrum decomposition method (ASDM), we calculate the optical radiation force exerted on a lossless dielectric sphere of arbitrary size illuminated by an Airy light-sheet. The beam shape coefficients (BSCs) of the Airy light-sheet are calculated using the vector angular spectrum decomposition and vector spherical wave functions methods. The optical radiation force acting on the spherical particle is obtained by the integral of Maxwell’s stress tensor. The transverse (Fy) and longitudinal (Fz) forces are numerically computed. Two kinds of polarization (TE and TM) are considered for the Airy light-sheet, and the negative longitudinal optical (pulling) force is particularly emphasized. The influence of the transverse scale parameter w0 and attenuation parameter γ of the Airy light-sheet on the force is discussed. The results of the present theory are verified using the dipole approximation method in which the gradient force has been also computed for a Rayleigh sphere. The numerical results show that when the transverse scale parameter w0 and attenuation parameter γ increase, the transverse and longitudinal forces decrease. Furthermore, the force caustic (i.e., maximum) shifts to the direction of y < 0 as the transverse scale parameter w0 increases. As the dimensionless size parameter of the sphere ka increases (where k is the wavenumber and a is the radius), the resonance peaks of the optical forces become larger. The results of this paper are of practical significance for the development of Airy light-sheet based optical manipulation technologies.

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