Optical trapping induced by reorientational nonlocal effects in nematic liquid crystals
Authors:
- L. LucchettiL. Lucchetti
- L. CrianteLCL. Criante
- F. BracalenteFBF. Bracalente
- F. AietaFAF. Aieta
- F. SimoniFSF. Simoni
- 4 August 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review E
- Vol. 84 (2) , 021702
Abstract
We report a detailed analysis of optical trapping of low index particles in liquid crystals under experimental conditions that prevent the effect of conventional trapping originated by optical gradient forces. The observation of stable, long-range trapping shows that this phenomenon in liquid crystals is regulated by a completely different mechanism than in isotropic media. In particular, the role of the nonlocality of optical reorientation is highlighted by showing the dependence of the trapping force on the size of the reoriented area. A model based on the actual form of the Gaussian focused beam impinging on the liquid-crystalline medium in the trapping experiment is also reported, with good agreement with experimental data.Keywords
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