Observation of trapping and transporting air- borne absorbing particles with a single optical beam

We demonstrate optical trapping and manipulation of micronsized absorbing air-borne particles with a single focused Gaussian beam. Transportation of trapped nonspherical particles from one beam to another is realized, and the underlying mechanism for the trapping is discussed by considering the combined action of several forces. By employing a specially-designed optical bottle beam, we observe stable trapping and optical transportation of light-absorbing particles from one container to another that is less susceptible to ambient perturbation. ©2012 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (350.4855) Optical tweezers or optical manipulation; (010.1030) Absorption; (010.1110) Aerosols; (290.5850) Scattering, particles. References and links 1. A. Ashkin, “Acceleration and trapping of particles by radiation pressure,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 24(4), 156–159 (1970). 2. A. Ashkin, J. M. Dziedzic, J. E. Bjorkholm, and S. Chu, “Observation of a single-beam gradient force optical trap for dielectric particles,” Opt. Lett. 11(5), 288–290 (1986). 3. D. McGloin and J. P. Reid, “Forty years of optical manipulation,” Opt. Photon. News 21(3), 20–26 (2010). 4. V. G. Shvedov, A. S. Desyatnikov, A. V. Rode, W. Krolikowski, and Y. S. Kivshar, “Optical guiding of absorbing nanoclusters in air,” Opt. Express 17(7), 5743–5757 (2009). 5. A. S. Desyatnikov, V. G. Shvedov, A. V. Rode, W. Krolikowski, and Y. S. Kivshar, “Photophoretic manipulation of absorbing aerosol particles with vortex beams: theory versus experiment,” Opt. Express 17(10), 8201–8211 (2009). 6. V. G. Shvedov, A. V. Rode, Y. V. Izdebskaya, A. S. Desyatnikov, W. Krolikowski, and Y. S. Kivshar, “Giant optical manipulation,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 105(11), 118103 (2010). 7. P. Zhang, Z. Zhang, J. Prakash, S. Huang, D. Hernandez, M. Salazar, D. N. Christodoulides, and Z. Chen, “Trapping and transporting aerosols with a single optical bottle beam generated by moiré techniques,” Opt. Lett. 36(8), 1491–1493 (2011). 8. M. Lewittes, S. Arnold, and G. Oster, “Radiometric levitation of micron sized spheres,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 40(6), 455–457 (1982). 9. A. B. Pluchino, “Radiometric levitation of spherical carbon aerosol particles using a Nd:YAG laser,” Appl. Opt. 22(12), 1861–1866 (1983). 10. J. Huisken and E. H. K. Stelzer, “Optical levitation of absorbing particles with a nominally Gaussian laser beam,” Opt. Lett. 27(14), 1223–1225 (2002). 11. H. Rohatschek, “Direction, magnitude and causes of photophoretic forces,” J. Aerosol Sci. 16(1), 29–42 (1985). 12. A. B. Pluchino, “Photophoretic force on particles for low Knudsen number,” Appl. Opt. 22(1), 103–106 (1983). 13. O. Jovanovic, “Photophoresis: light-induced motion of particles suspended in gas,” J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transf. 110(11), 889–901 (2009). 14. A. B. Pluchino and S. Arnold, “Comprehensive model of the photophoretic force on a spherical microparticle,” Opt. Lett. 10(6), 261–263 (1985). 15. W. M. Greene, R. E. Spjut, E. Bar-Ziv, J. P. Longwell, and A. F. Sarofim, “Photophoresis of irradiated spheres: evaluation of the complex index of refraction,” Langmuir 1(3), 361–365 (1985). 16. H. Rohatschek, “Semi-empirical model of photophoretic forces for the entire range of pressures,” J. Aerosol Sci. 26(5), 717–734 (1995). #167524 $15.00 USD Received 27 Apr 2012; revised 23 May 2012; accepted 5 Jun 2012; published 2 Jul 2012 (C) 2012 OSA 16 July 2012 / Vol. 20, No. 15 / OPTICS EXPRESS 16212 17. F. O. Goodman, “Thermal accommodation coefficients,” J. Phys. Chem. 84(12), 1431–1445 (1980). 18. V. G. Shvedov, C. Hnatovsky, A. V. Rode, and W. Krolikowski, “Robust trapping and manipulation of airborne particles with a bottle beam,” Opt. Express 19(18), 17350–17356 (2011). 19. Y. L. Pan, S. C. Hill, and M. Coleman, “Photophoretic trapping of absorbing particles in air and measurement of their single-particle Raman spectra,” Opt. Express 20(5), 5325–5334 (2012). 20. I. Chremmos, P. Zhang, J. Prakash, N. K. Efremidis, D. N. Christodoulides, and Z. Chen, “Fourier-space generation of abruptly autofocusing beams and optical bottle beams,” Opt. Lett. 36(18), 3675–3677 (2011). 21. Y. Lamhot, A. Barak, O. Peleg, and M. Segev, “Self-trapping of optical beams through thermophoresis,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 105(16), 163906 (2010).