Ultra-long-range optical pulling with an optical nanofibre

Jianbin Zhang, Keying Liu, Pan Wang, Limin Tong () and Xin Guo ()
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Jianbin Zhang: Zhejiang University
Keying Liu: Zhejiang University
Pan Wang: Zhejiang University
Limin Tong: Zhejiang University
Xin Guo: Zhejiang University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract As a counterintuitive phenomenon, optical pulling of an object has been attracting increasing attention in recent years, owing to its intriguing underlying physics of light momentum transfer and potential for multi-directional manipulation. Due to the difficulty in engineering wave vectors for long-range optical pulling with a single beam, to date, the pulling range of an object is experimentally limited to hundreds of micrometres. Here, we demonstrate ultra-long-range optical pulling of a micro-droplet with an optical nanofibre based on the Minkowski-photon-momentum engineering. We show that, when a 1552-nm-wavelength light is launched into and guided along a silica nanofibre with a diameter below ~1/3 of the vacuum wavelength, it can pull back a micro-droplet (tens of micrometres in diameter) over a distance up to 40 cm. Also, we have succeeded in vertically pulling up a micro-droplet against its own gravity (~1 nN). These results pave the way for ultra-long-range optical pulling, with promising applications in nanophotonics, optomechanics, biophotonics and optofluidics.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62536-w

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