Single Gradientless Light Beam Drags Particles as Tractor Beams

Andrey Novitsky, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Haifeng Wang

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    Abstract

    Usually a light beam pushes a particle when the photons act upon it. We investigate the optical forces by nonparaxial gradientless beams and find that the forces can drag suitable particles all the way towards the light source. The major criterion of realizing the backward dragging force is the strong nonparaxiality of the light beam, which contributes to the pulling force owing to momentum conservation. The nonparaxiality of the Bessel beam can be manipulated to possess a dragging force along both the radial longitudinal directions, i.e., a "tractor beam" with stable trajectories is achieved. © 2011 American Physical Society.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalPhysical Review Letters
    Volume107
    Issue number20
    Pages (from-to)203601
    ISSN0031-9007
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright 2011 American Physical Society.

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