Optical Trapping and Control of a Dielectric Nanowire by a Nanoaperture

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel method for dynamically trapping and controlling dielectric nanowires using a single nanoaperture, offering low-power operation and precise manipulation capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a new optical trapping technique utilizing a nanoaperture for dielectric nanowires, enabling control of orientation and rotation with low power.

Findings

Nanoaperture can trap a nanowire

Can control nanowire orientation with linearly polarized light

Can rotate nanowire with circularly polarized light

Abstract

We demonstrate that a single sub-wavelength nanoaperture in a metallic thin film can be used to achieve dynamic optical trapping and control of a single dielectric nanowire. A nanoaperture can trap a nanowire, control its orientation when illuminated by a linearly-polarized incident field, and also rotate the nanowire when illuminated by a circularly-polarized incident field. Compared to other designs, this approach has the advantages of a low-power driving field entailing low heating and photodamage.