title: Optical guiding of absorbing nanoclusters in air.
abstract: We suggest a novel approach in all-optical trapping employing a photophoretic force for manipulation of absorbing particles in open air. We demonstrate experimentally the robust three-dimensional guiding, over the distances of a few millimeters, of agglomerates of carbon nanoparticles with the size spanned from 100 nm to 10 microm, as well as their acceleration up to velocities of 1 cm/sec. We achieve stable positioning and guiding of particles as well as simultaneous trapping of a large number of particles in a dual-beam optical trap created by two counter-propagating and co-rotating optical vortex beams.
authors.affiliation: Nonlinear Physics Center, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Vladlen G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Shvedov
authors.forename: Anton S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Desyatnikov
authors.forename: Andrei V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Rode
authors.forename: Wieslaw
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Krolikowski
authors.forename: Yuri S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kivshar