title: Dynamics of optical matter creation and annihilation in colloidal liquids controlled by laser trapping power.
abstract: We investigate the dynamics of optical matter creation and annihilation in a colloidal liquid that was employed to construct an all-optical switch. It is revealed that the switching-on process can be characterized by the Fermi-Dirac distribution function, while the switching-off process can be described by a steady state followed by a single exponential decay. The phase transition times exhibit a strong dependence on trapping power. With an increasing trapping power, while the switching-on time decreases rapidly, the switch-off time increases significantly, indicating the effects of optical binding and van der Waals force on the lifetime of the optical matter.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Photonic Information Technology, School for Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qiao-Feng
authors.initials: QF
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Xu-Guang
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Li-Jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Xiang-Bo
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Achanta Venu
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Gopal
authors.forename: Vyacheslav A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Trofimov