Crossover from positive to negative optical torque in mesoscale optical matter

Fei Han, John A. Parker, Yuval Yifat, Curtis Peterson, Stephen K. Gray, Norbert F. Scherer and Zijie Yan ()
Additional contact information
Fei Han: Clarkson University
John A. Parker: James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago
Yuval Yifat: James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago
Curtis Peterson: James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago
Stephen K. Gray: Argonne National Laboratory
Norbert F. Scherer: James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago
Zijie Yan: Clarkson University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The photons in circularly polarized light can transfer their quantized spin angular momentum to micro- and nanostructures via absorption and scattering. This normally exerts positive torque on the objects wher the sign (i.e., handedness or angular direction) follows that of the spin angular momentum. Here we show that the sign of the optical torque can be negative in mesoscopic optical matter arrays of metal nanoparticles (NPs) assembled in circularly polarized optical traps. Crossover from positive to negative optical torque, which occurs for arrays with different number, separation and configuration of the constituent particles, is shown to result from many-body interactions as clarified by electrodynamics simulations. Our results establish that both positive and negative optical torque can be readily realized and controlled in optical matter arrays. This property and reconfigurability of the arrays makes possible programmable materials for optomechanical, microrheological and biological applications.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07376-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07376-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07376-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().