Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles
Trapping of mesoscopic particles by optical forces usually relies on the gradient force, whereby particles are attracted into optical wells formed by landscaping the intensity of an optical field. This is most often achieved by optical Gaussian beams, interference patterns, general phase contrast me...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Physical Society
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85667 |
| _version_ | 1811084373138604032 |
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| author | Grzegorczyk, Tomasz M. Rohner, Johann Fournier, Jean-Marc |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics Grzegorczyk, Tomasz M. Rohner, Johann Fournier, Jean-Marc |
| author_sort | Grzegorczyk, Tomasz M. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Trapping of mesoscopic particles by optical forces usually relies on the gradient force, whereby particles are attracted into optical wells formed by landscaping the intensity of an optical field. This is most often achieved by optical Gaussian beams, interference patterns, general phase contrast methods, or other mechanisms. Hence, although the simultaneous trapping of several hundreds of particles can be achieved, these particles remain mostly independent with negligible interaction. Optical matter, however, relies on close packing and binding forces, with fundamentally different electrodynamic properties. In this Letter, we build ensembles of optically bound particles to realize a reflective surface that can be used to image an object or to focus a light beam. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental proof of the creation of a mirror by optical matter, and represents an important step toward the realization of a laser-trapped mirror (LTM) in space. From a theoretical point of view, optically bound close packing requires an exact solver of Maxwell’s equations in order to precisely compute the field scattered by the collection of particles. Such rigorous calculations have been developed and are used here to study the focusing and resolving power of an LTM. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:49:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/85667 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:49:42Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/856672022-09-28T10:15:53Z Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles Grzegorczyk, Tomasz M. Rohner, Johann Fournier, Jean-Marc Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics Grzegorczyk, Tomasz M. Trapping of mesoscopic particles by optical forces usually relies on the gradient force, whereby particles are attracted into optical wells formed by landscaping the intensity of an optical field. This is most often achieved by optical Gaussian beams, interference patterns, general phase contrast methods, or other mechanisms. Hence, although the simultaneous trapping of several hundreds of particles can be achieved, these particles remain mostly independent with negligible interaction. Optical matter, however, relies on close packing and binding forces, with fundamentally different electrodynamic properties. In this Letter, we build ensembles of optically bound particles to realize a reflective surface that can be used to image an object or to focus a light beam. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental proof of the creation of a mirror by optical matter, and represents an important step toward the realization of a laser-trapped mirror (LTM) in space. From a theoretical point of view, optically bound close packing requires an exact solver of Maxwell’s equations in order to precisely compute the field scattered by the collection of particles. Such rigorous calculations have been developed and are used here to study the focusing and resolving power of an LTM. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Institute for Advanced Concepts) 2014-03-17T13:29:10Z 2014-03-17T13:29:10Z 2014-01 2013-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0031-9007 1079-7114 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85667 Grzegorczyk, Tomasz M., Johann Rohner, and Jean-Marc Fournier. “Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles.” Physical Review Letters 112, no. 2 (January 2014). © 2014 American Physical Society en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.023902 Physical Review Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | Grzegorczyk, Tomasz M. Rohner, Johann Fournier, Jean-Marc Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles |
| title | Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles |
| title_full | Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles |
| title_fullStr | Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles |
| title_short | Optical Mirror from Laser-Trapped Mesoscopic Particles |
| title_sort | optical mirror from laser trapped mesoscopic particles |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85667 |
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