Optical forces arising from phase gradients.
We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that phase gradients in a light field can be used to create a new category of optical traps complementary to the more familiar intensity-gradient traps known as optical tweezers. We further show that the work done by phase-gradient forces is path dependent and briefly discuss some ramifications of this nonconservativity.
Roichman
Yohai
Y
Department of Physics and Center for Soft Matter Research, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Sun
Bo
B
Roichman
Yael
Y
Amato-Grill
Jesse
J
Grier
David G
DG