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Title: Laser pushing or pulling of absorbing airborne particles

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4955476· OSTI ID:22590577
;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi 39759 (United States)
  2. U.S. Army Research Laboratory, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20783 (United States)

A single absorbing particle formed by carbon nanotubes in the size range of 10–50 μm is trapped in air by a laser trapping beam and concurrently illuminated by another laser manipulating beam. When the trapping beam is terminated, the movement of the particle controlled by the manipulating beam is investigated. We report our observations of light-controlled pushing and pulling motions. We show that the movement direction has little relationship with the particle size and manipulating beam's parameters but is dominated by the particle's orientation and morphology. With this observation, the controllable optical manipulation is now able to be generalized to arbitrary particles, including irregularly shaped absorbing particles that are shown in this work.

OSTI ID:
22590577
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 1; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English