Momentum-topology-induced optical pulling force

• Main Authors: Li, Hang, Cao, Yongyin, Shi, Bojian, Zhu, Tongtong, Geng, Yong, Feng, Rui, Wang, Lin, Sun, Fangkui, Shi, Yuzhi, Mohammad Ali Miri, Nieto-Vesperinas, Manuel, Qiu, Cheng-Wei, Ding, Weiqiang
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering; Momentum; Optical Pulling Force
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145023
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We report an ingenious mechanism to obtain robust optical pulling force by a single plane wave via engineering the topology of light momentum in the background. The underlying physics is found to be the topological transition of the light momentum from a usual convex shape to a starlike concave shape in the carefully designed background, such as a photonic crystal structure. The principle and results reported here shed insightful concepts concerning optical pulling, and pave the way for a new class of advanced optical manipulation technique, with potential applications of drug delivery and cell sorting.