Generalized Lorenz-Mie theories and mechanical effects of laser light, on the occasion of Arthur Ashkin’s receipt of the 2018 Nobel prize in physics for his pioneering work in optical levitation and manipulation: A review

Gérard Gouesbet

Among the many works of Arthur Ashkin, many have been devoted to optical tweezers, optical levitation and optical manipulation of macroscopic particles (“macroscopic” being here to beunderstood as opposed to atoms or molecules). From a theoretical point of view, these experiments have been studied in the framework of two limiting regimes, namely Rayleigh regime for small size parameter and ray optics for large size parameter. The generalized Lorenz-Mie theory (GLMT, and more generally GLMTs) bridges the gap between these two regimes. The present paper therefore reviews GLMTs and mechanical effects of laser light, in Rouen where the GLMT had originally been built, but also worldwide. A story in the review concerns the first experimental validations of GLMT using optical levitation experiments.

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