Effect of Coherence on Radiation Forces acting on a Rayleigh Dielectric Sphere.pdfVIP

Effect of Coherence on Radiation Forces acting on a Rayleigh Dielectric Sphere Li-Gang Wang Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China and Department of Physics, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong Cheng-Liang Zhao, Li-Qin Wang, and Xuan-Hui Lu Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China Shi-Yao Zhu Department of Physics, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong The radiation forces on a Rayleigh dielectric sphere induced by a partially coherent light beam are greatly affected by the coherence of the light beam. The magnitude of the radiation forces on a dielectric sphere near the focus point greatly decreases as the coherence decreases. For the light beam with good coherence, the radiation force may be used to trap a particle; and for the light beam with intermediate coherence, the radiation force may be used to guide and accelerate a particle. © 2006 Optical Society of America. OCIS codes: 140.7010; 290.5850; 030.1640. Optical trapping and manipulation of micron-sized particles have been extensively attended (see some reviews [1-4]) since the seminal work of Ashkin [5] on radiation pressure. This technology has been a powerful tool, in particular, in biophysical sciences for trapping living cells and organelles [6-7], DNA analysis [8], and atomic physics for manipulating the neutral atoms [9-10]. 1 In 1970, Ashkin [5] first demonstrated that micron-sized particles can be accelerated and trapped by the radiation forces from two counter-propagating laser beams. In 1986, Ashkin et al. further