Lateral radiative forces exerted by evanescent fields along a hyperbolic metamaterial slab

I S Nefedov, C A Valagiannopoulos and A S Shalin

We show and investigate the optical forces acting on a particle in the vicinity of a planar waveguide which is filled with hyperbolic material and supports propagation across its plane (two-dimensional). The anisotropy axis of its medium lies in plane of the waveguide. In contrast to commonly considered pushing or pulling forces, acting in one-dimensional guiding structures, in the case of two-dimensional wave propagation, the angles between the momentum and the total energy flow may take any value around the circle. Accordingly, evanescent fields out of the slab exert lateral radiative forces on a nanoparticle oriented parallel to momentum being controllably different from the total energy flow direction. This provides a flexibility in manipulation by nanoparticles by employing suitably engineered hyperbolic structures.

DOI