Optical Force Enhancement Using an Imaginary Vector Potential for Photons
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2017

The enhancement of optical forces has enabled a variety of technological applications that rely on the optical control of small objects and devices. Unfortunately, optical forces are still too small for the convenient actuation of integrated switches and waveguide couplers. Here we show how the optical gradient force can be enhanced by an order of magnitude by making use of gauge materials inside two evanescently coupled waveguides. To this end, the gauge materials inside the cores should emulate imaginary vector potentials for photons pointing perpendicularly to the waveguide plane. Depending on the relative orientation of the vector potentials in neighboring waveguides, i.e., pointing away from or towards each other, the conventional attractive force due to an even mode profile may be enhanced, suppressed, or may even become repulsive. This and other new features indicate that the implementation of complex-valued vector potentials with non-Hermitian waveguide cores may further enhance our control over mode profiles and the associated optical forces.

manipulation

gradient force

tweezers

radiation pressure

cavity optomechanics

atoms

topological insulators

particles

light

lattices

Författare

Lana Descheemaeker

Vrije Universiteit Brüssel (VUB)

Vincent Ginis

Vrije Universiteit Brüssel (VUB)

Harvard University

Sophie Viaene

Chalmers, Fysik, Kondenserade materiens teori

Philippe Tassin

Chalmers, Fysik, Kondenserade materiens teori

Physical Review Letters

0031-9007 (ISSN) 1079-7114 (eISSN)

Vol. 119 13 137402

Ämneskategorier

Telekommunikation

Atom- och molekylfysik och optik

Annan elektroteknik och elektronik

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.137402

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Senast uppdaterat

2022-04-05