title: Lateral chirality-sorting optical forces.
abstract: The transverse component of the spin angular momentum of evanescent waves gives rise to lateral optical forces on chiral particles, which have the unusual property of acting in a direction in which there is neither a field gradient nor wave propagation. Because their direction and strength depends on the chiral polarizability of the particle, they act as chirality-sorting and may offer a mechanism for passive chirality spectroscopy. The absolute strength of the forces also substantially exceeds that of other recently predicted sideways optical forces.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; École Polytechnique, Palaiseau 91120, France.
authors.forename: Amaury
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hayat
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; jpbm@seas.harvard.edu capasso@seas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: J P Balthasar
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; jpbm@seas.harvard.edu capasso@seas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Capasso
keywords: chirality; optical forces; optical spin; optical spin-momentum locking; optical spin–orbit interaction