Optical lift from dielectric semicylinders

A wave optics numerical analysis of the force and torque on a semicylindrical optical wing is presented. Comparisons with a recently reported ray optics analysis indicate good agreement when the radius is large compared with the wavelength of light, as expected. Surprisingly, we find that the domina...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics letters 2012-10, Vol.37 (19), p.4038-4040
Main Authors: Simpson, Stephen H, Hanna, Simon, Peterson, Timothy J, Swartzlander, Jr, Grover A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dielectrics
Invariants
Lift
Numerical analysis
Refractive index
Refractivity
Stiffness
Wavelengths
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A wave optics numerical analysis of the force and torque on a semicylindrical optical wing is presented. Comparisons with a recently reported ray optics analysis indicate good agreement when the radius is large compared with the wavelength of light, as expected. Surprisingly, we find that the dominant rotationally stable angle of attack at α≈-15° is relatively invariant to changes in radius and refractive index. However, the torsional stiffness at the equilibrium point is found to increase, approximately, as the cubic power of the radius. Quasi-resonant internal modes of light produce complex size-dependent variations of the angle and magnitude of the optical lift force.
ISSN:0146-9592
1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.37.004038