Particle manipulation beyond the diffraction limit using structured super-oscillating light beams

Abstract

The diffraction limited resolution of light focused by a lens was derived in 1873 by Ernst Abbe. Later in 1952, a method to reach sub-diffraction light spots was proposed by modulating the wavefront of the focused beam. In a related development, super-oscillating functions, i.e. band limited functions that locally oscillate faster than their highest Fourier component, were introduced and experimentally applied for super-resolution microscopy. Up till now, only simple Gaussian-like sub-diffraction spots were used. Here we show that the amplitude and phase profile of these sub-diffraction spots can be arbitrarily controlled. In particular we utilize Hermite-Gauss, Laguerre-Gauss and Airy functions to structure super-oscillating beams with sub-diffraction lobes. These structured beams are then used for high resolution trapping and manipulation of nanometer-sized particles. The trapping potential provides unprecedented localization accuracy and stiffness, significantly exceeding those provided by standard diffraction limited beams.

arXiv comment16 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Journal

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• Optical trapping below the diffraction limit with a tunable beam waist using super-oscillating beams
• Fine features of optical potential well induced by nonlinearity
• Selection rules for the excitation of quantum dots by spatially structured light beams -- Application to the reconstruction of higher excited exciton wave functions
• Superoscillatory PT-symmetric potentials
• Controlled modulation of optical energy in the high order Hermite-Gaussian laser modes
• Correlated Quantum Airy Photons: An Analytical Approach
• Superoscillating Quantum Control Induced By Sequential Selections