Giant optical forces in planar dielectric photonic metamaterials

Mode-Symmetry-Assisted Optical Pulling by Bound States in the Continuum

Aside from optical pushing and trapping that have been implemented successfully, the transportation of objects backward to the source by the optical pulling forces (OPFs) has attracted tremendous attention, which was usually achieved by increasing the forward momentum of light. However, the limited momentum transfer between light and object greatly constrains the amplitudes of OPFs. Here, we present a mechanism to generate strong interactions between object and background through the bound states in the continuums, which can generate large OPFs without increasing the forward momentum of light. The underlying physics is the extraction of momentum from the designed background lattice units assisted by mode symmetry. This work paves the way for extraordinary optical manipulations and shows great potential for exploring the momenta of light in media.

Nonlocal metasurface for dark-field edge emission

Nonlocal effects originating from interactions between neighboring meta-atoms introduce additional degrees of freedom for peculiar characteristics of metadevices, such as enhancement, selectivity, and spatial modulation. However, they are generally difficult to manipulate because of the collective responses of multiple meta-atoms. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the nonlocal metasurface to realize the spatial modulation of dark-field emission. Plasmonic asymmetric split rings (ASRs) are designed to simultaneously excite local dipole resonance and nonlocal quasi-bound states in the continuum and spatially extended modes. With one type of unit, nonlocal effects are tailored by varying array periods. ASRs at the metasurface's edge lack sufficient interactions, resulting in stronger dark-field scattering and thus edge emission properties of the metasurface. Pixel-level spatial control is demonstrated by simply erasing some units, providing more flexibility than conventional local metasurfaces. This work paves the way for manipulating nonlocal effects and facilitates applications in optical trapping and sorting at the nanoscale.

Biological cell trapping and manipulation of a photonic nanojet by a specific microcone-shaped optical fiber tip

Trapping and manipulating mesoscopic biological cells with high precision and flexibility are very important for numerous biomedical applications. In particular, a photonic nanojet based on a non-resonance focusing phenomenon can serve as a powerful tool for manipulating red blood cells and tumor cells in blood. In this study, we demonstrate an approach to trap and drive cells using a high-quality photonic nanojet which is produced by a specific microcone-shaped optical-fiber tip. The dynamic chemical etching method is used to fabricate optical-fiber probes with a microcone-shaped tip. Optical forces and potentials exerted on a red blood cell by a microcone-shaped fiber tips are analyzed based on finite-difference time-domain calculations. Optical trapping and driving experiments are done using breast cancer cells and red blood cells. Furthermore, a cell chain is formed by adjusting the magnitude of the optical force. The real-time backscattering intensities of multiple cells are detected, and highly sensitive trapping is achieved. This microcone-shaped optical fiber probe is potentially a powerful device for dynamic cell assembly, optical sorting, and the precise diagnosis of vascular diseases.

Resonant bending of silicon nanowires by incident light

Coupling of two dielectric wires with a rectangular cross section gives rise to bonding and anti-bonding resonances. The latter is featured by extremal narrowing of the resonant width for variation of the aspect ratio of the cross section and distance between wires. A plane wave resonant to this anti-bonding resonance gives rise to unprecedent enhancement of the optical forces up to several nano Newtons per micrometer length of the wires. The forces oscillate with the angle of incidence of the plane wave but always try to repel the wires. If the wires are fixed at the ends, the light power 1.5mW/µm² bends wires with length 50 µm by order 100 nm.

Tunable high Q-factor terahertz complementary graphene metamaterial

Based on the complementary graphene asymmetric double bars patterns, the tunable Fano resonances with large Q-factors have been investigated in the terahertz regime, including the effects of Fermi levels, structural parameters and operation frequency. The results reveal that compared with existed graphene tunable devices, the Fano resonant curve is very narrow and indicates a large Q-factor of about 60. The strong Fano resonant curves can be convenient tailored. As Fermi level increases, the amplitude of the Fano dip decreases, and the resonant peak position shifts to high frequency. The amplitude modulation depth (MD) of the Fano curve is more, about 90%, if the Fermi level changes in the scope of 0.2-1.0 eV. With the increase of the sample refractive index, the resonant Fano dip shifts low frequency, and the dip amplitude MD can reach more than 40%. The results are very helpful to understand the tunable mechanisms of graphene based Fano systems and to design high sensitivity functional devices, e.g. sensors, modulators, and antenna.

Measurement of Mechanical Deformations Induced by Enhanced Electromagnetic Stress on a Parallel Metallic-Plate System

We measured the electromagnetic stress-induced local strain distribution on a centimeter-sized parallel-plate metallic resonant unit illuminated with microwave radiation. Using a fiber interferometer, we found that the strain changes sign across the resonant unit, in agreement with theoretical predictions that the attractive electric and repulsive magnetic forces act at different locations. The enhancement of the corresponding maximum local electromagnetic stress is stronger than the enhancement of the net force, reaching a factor of >600 compared to the ordinary radiation pressure.

Optical force enhancement and annular trapping by plasmonic toroidal resonance in a double-disk metastructure

Optical forces can be enhanced by surface plasmon resonances with various interesting characteristics. Here, we numerically calculated the optical forces enhanced by a new kind of toroidal dipolar resonance in a double-disk metastructure. The results show that this kind of optical force is competitive with ordinary plasmonic forces and typically can reach-182.5pNμm²mW^-1. Influences of geometric parameters are discussed for the enhancement characteristic of optical force. Finally, we make a contrastive investigation on the optical trapping characteristic on a 5-nm-diameter nanoparticle, and show that the unique annular trapping region can be utilized for nanoscale applications.

Partially hollowed ultra-thin dielectric meta-surface for transmission manipulation

Impressive optical properties are numerically demonstrated in the partially hollowed dielectric meta-surface (p-HDMS), which consists of an air cavity array intercalated in an ultra-thin (~λ/6) high-index dielectric film. Multispectral transmission band-stop response with near-perfect spectral modulation depth is achieved. The spectral slop is up to 80%/nm, indicating the sharp and narrowband transmission behavior. Classical Malus law is confirmed by this sub-wavelength platform. Moreover, the multispectral light propagation manipulation can be perfectly reproduced by using the actual dielectric with absorption loss. In this all-dielectric meta-surface, conduction loss is avoided compared to its metallic plasmonic counterpart. Such configurations can therefore serve as excellent alternatives for plasmonic meta-surfaces and constitute an important step in nanophotonics.

Giant Nonlinearity of an Optically Reconfigurable Plasmonic Metamaterial

Metamaterial nanostructures actuated by light give rise to a large optical nonlinearity. Plasmonic metamolecules on a flexible support structure cut from a dielectric membrane of nanoscale thickness are rearranged by optical illumination. This changes the optical properties of the strongly coupled plasmonic structure and therefore results in modulation of light with light.

Reconfigurable nanomechanical photonic metamaterials

The changing balance of forces at the nanoscale offers the opportunity to develop a new generation of spatially reconfigurable nanomembrane metamaterials in which electromagnetic Coulomb, Lorentz and Ampère forces, as well as thermal stimulation and optical signals, can be engaged to dynamically change their optical properties. Individual building blocks of such metamaterials, the metamolecules, and their arrays fabricated on elastic dielectric membranes can be reconfigured to achieve optical modulation at high frequencies, potentially reaching the gigahertz range. Mechanical and optical resonances enhance the magnitude of actuation and optical response within these nanostructures, which can be driven by electric signals of only a few volts or optical signals with power of only a few milliwatts. We envisage switchable, electro-optical, magneto-optical and nonlinear metamaterials that are compact and silicon-nanofabrication-technology compatible with functionalities surpassing those of natural media by orders of magnitude in some key design parameters.

Magnesium as Novel Material for Active Plasmonics in the Visible Wavelength Range

Investigating new materials plays an important role for advancing the field of nanoplasmonics. In this work, we fabricate nanodisks from magnesium and demonstrate tuning of their plasmon resonance throughout the whole visible wavelength range by changing the disk diameter. Furthermore, we employ a catalytic palladium cap layer to transform the metallic Mg particles into dielectric MgH2 particles when exposed to hydrogen gas. We prove that this transition can be reversed in the presence of oxygen. This yields plasmonic nanostructures with an extinction spectrum that can be repeatedly switched on or off or kept at any intermediate state, offering new perspectives for active plasmonic metamaterials.

Direct Measurement of Optical Force Induced by Near-Field Plasmonic Cavity Using Dynamic Mode AFM

Plasmonic nanostructures have attracted much attention in recent years because of their potential applications in optical manipulation through near-field enhancement. Continuing experimental efforts have been made to develop accurate techniques to directly measure the near-field optical force induced by the plasmonic nanostructures in the visible frequency range. In this work, we report a new application of dynamic mode atomic force microscopy (DM-AFM) in the measurement of the enhanced optical force acting on a nano-structured plasmonic resonant cavity. The plasmonic cavity is made of an upper gold-coated glass sphere and a lower quartz substrate patterned with an array of subwavelength gold disks. In the near-field when the sphere is positioned close to the disk array, plasmonic resonance is excited in the cavity and the induced force by a 1550 nm infrared laser is found to be increased by an order of magnitude compared with the photon pressure generated by the same laser light. The experiment demonstrates that DM-AFM is a powerful tool for the study of light induced forces and their enhancement in plasmonic nanostructures.

Optical forces in nanorod metamaterial

Optomechanical manipulation of micro and nano-scale objects with laser beams finds use in a large span of multidisciplinary applications. Auxiliary nanostructuring could substantially improve performances of classical optical tweezers by means of spatial localization of objects and intensity required for trapping. Here we investigate a three-dimensional nanorod metamaterial platform, serving as an auxiliary tool for the optical manipulation, able to support and control near-field interactions and generate both steep and flat optical potential profiles. It was shown that the 'topological transition' from the elliptic to hyperbolic dispersion regime of the metamaterial, usually having a significant impact on various light-matter interaction processes, does not strongly affect the distribution of optical forces in the metamaterial. This effect is explained by the predominant near-fields contributions of the nanostructure to optomechanical interactions. Semi-analytical model, approximating the finite size nanoparticle by a point dipole and neglecting the mutual re-scattering between the particle and nanorod array, was found to be in a good agreement with full-wave numerical simulation. In-plane (perpendicular to the rods) trapping regime, saddle equilibrium points and optical puling forces (directed along the rods towards the light source), acting on a particle situated inside or at the nearby the metamaterial, were found.

An extremely wideband and lightweight metamaterial absorber

This paper presents a three-dimensional microwave metamaterial absorber based on the stand-up resistive film patch array. The absorber has wideband absorption, lightweight, and polarization-independent properties. Our design comes from the array of unidirectional stand-up resistive film patches backed by a metallic plane, which can excite multiple standing wave modes. By rolling the resistive film patches as a square enclosure, we obtain the polarization-independent property. Due to the multiple standing wave modes, the most incident energy is dissipated by the resistive film patches, and thus, the ultra-wideband absorption can be achieved by overlapping all the absorption modes at different frequencies. Both the simulated and experimental results show that the absorber possesses a fractional bandwidth of 148.2% with the absorption above 90% in the frequency range from 3.9 to 26.2 GHz. Moreover, the proposed absorber is extremely lightweight. The areal density of the fabricated sample is about 0.062 g/cm², which is approximately equivalent to that of eight stacked standard A4 office papers. It is expected that our proposed absorber may find potential applications such as electromagnetic interference and stealth technologies.

Strong field enhancement and light-matter interactions with all-dielectric metamaterials based on split bar resonators

Strong subwavelength field enhancement has often been assumed to be unique to plasmonic nanostructures. Here we propose a type of all-dielectric metamaterials based on split bar resonators. The nano gap at the centre of the resonant elements results in large local field enhancement and light localization in the surrounding medium, which can be employed for strong light-matter interactions. In a Fano-resonant dielectric metamaterial comprising pairs of asymmetric split silicon bars, the enhancement of electric field amplitude in the gap exceeds 120 while the averaged electromagnetic energy density is enhanced by more than 7000 times. An optical refractive index sensor with a potential sensitivity of 525 nm/RIU is designed based on the proposed metamaterials. The proposed concept can be applied to other types of dielectric nanostructures and may stimulate further research of dielectric metamaterials for applications ranging from nonlinear optics and sensing to the realization of new types of active lasing devices.