Highly curved reflective W-shape and J-shape photonic hook induced by light interaction with partially coated microfluidic channels

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to generate highly curved photonic hooks using light interaction with partially coated microfluidic channels, enabling flexible control and integration in mesoscale photonics applications.

Contribution

It presents a new mechanism for creating W-shaped and J-shaped photonic hooks with large bending angles, controllable via coating processes, and compatible with microfluidic systems.

Findings

Photonic hooks with bending angles over 80 degrees were achieved.

The method allows flexible control of the bending angle through coating adjustments.

The design is easily integrated with existing microfluidic systems.

Abstract

Photonic hook (PH) is a new type of artificial self-bending beam focused by a dielectric particle-lens with a curved waist smaller than the wavelength, which has the potential to revolutionize mesoscale photonics in many applications, e.g., optical trapping, signal switching, imaging, etc. In this paper, we discover a new mechanism that the highly curved PHs can be realised by the light interaction with the fully or partially metal-coated microchannels. The generated W-shaped and J-shaped PHs have bending angles exceeding 80-degree. Compared to other PH setups, the proposed design has a larger range to flexibly control the bending angle through the coating process and can be easily integrated with the established microfluidic systems.