Enantioselective optical gradient forces using 3D structured vortex light

Abstract

Here we highlight enantioselective optical gradient forces present in 3D structured optical vortex tweezing systems. One chiral force originates from the circular polarization of the light, while remarkably the other is independent of the input polarization, even occurring for unpolarized light, and is not present in 2D structured light nor propagating plane waves. This latter chiral sorting mechanism allows for the enantioselective trapping of chiral particles into distinct rings in the transverse plane through conservative radial forces.

References in corpus (4)

• Electromagnetic Angular Momentum
• Electromagnetic Force and Momentum
• Optical helicity of unpolarized light
• Measures of Helicity and Chirality of Optical Vortex Beams

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Customized optical chirality of vortex structured light through state and degree of polarization control
• Spin angular momentum and optical chirality of Poincaré vector vortex beams
• The Azimuthally-Radially Polarized Beam: Helicity and Momentum Densities, Generation and Optimal Chiral Light
• Strong chiral optical force for small chiral molecules based on electric-dipole interactions, inspired by the asymmetrical hydrozoan $\text{Velella velella}$
• Experimental generation of optimally chiral azimuthally-radially polarized beams