Transverse spinning of a sphere in a plasmonic field

Abstract

We evaluate optical forces and torques induced by a surface plasmon to a sphere of arbitrary size, i.e. beyond the point-like dipolar limit. Through a multipolar decomposition of the plasmonic field, we demonstrate that the induced torque is purely transverse to the plasmon propagation direction. Our approach removes the inherent ambiguities of the dipolar regime with respect to rotations and emphasizes the crucial role played by dissipation in the onset of the plasmonic torque. We also give realistic estimates of such plasmon-induced spinning of gold spheres immersed in water or air.

11 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices: mimicking condensed matter physics and beyond
• Optical alignment and spinning of laser-trapped microscopic particles
• Extraordinary momentum and spin in evanescent waves
• Mechanical separation of chiral dipoles by chiral light
• Force and torque on an electric dipole by spinning light fields

Cited by in corpus (21)

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• Transverse spin and momentum in two-wave interference
• Spin and orbital angular momenta of acoustic beams
• Transverse spinning of unpolarized light
• Optical momentum and angular momentum in complex media: From the Abraham-Minkowski debate to unusual properties of surface plasmon-polaritons
• Transverse spin and surface waves in acoustic metamaterials
• Macroscopic direct observation of optical spin-dependent lateral forces and left-handed torques
• Spin control of light with hyperbolic metasurfaces
• The magnetic and electric transverse spin density of spatially confined light
• The ubiquitous photonic wheel
• Plasmonic lateral forces on chiral spheres
• Chiral near fields generated from plasmonic lattices
• Effects of surface plasmons on spin currents in a thin film system
• Subfemtonewton force fields measured with ergodic Brownian ensembles
• Transverse spin angular momentum of space-time surface plasmon polariton wave packet
• Transverse multipolar light-matter couplings in evanescent waves
• Optical force and torque on small particles induced by polarization singularities
• Imaging the transverse spin density of light via electromagnetically induced transparency
• Dissipation Effect on Optical Force and Torque near Interfaces
• New investigations on the transverse spin of structured optical fields
• Spin Current Generation by a Surface Plasmon Polariton