Optical forces on a nonlinear optical Rayleigh particle induced by high- repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses

摘要

The principle of optical trapping is conventionally based on the interaction of optical fields with linear-induced polarizations. However, the optical force originating from the nonlinear polarization becomes significant when nonlinear optical nanoparticles are trapped by femtosecond laser pulses. Herein we develop the time-averaged optical forces on a nonlinear optical nanoparticle using high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses, based on the linear and nonlinear polarization effects. We investigate the characteristics of transverse and longitudinal optical forces for particles exhibiting self-focusing and defocusing effects. It is shown that the self-focusing effect increases the trapping force strength and improves the confinement of particles, whereas the self-defocusing effect leads to the splitting of potential well at the focal plane and destabilizes the optical trap, resulting in ejections of trapped particles along the direction of the beam's propagation. The optical forces exerted on the nonlinear optical particles are experimentally related to the trapping stiffness. It is expected that the self-focusing (or self-defocusing) effect increases (or decreases) the trapping efficiency and stiffness. Our results successfully explain the reported experimental observations and provide theoretical support for capturing nonlinear nanoparticles with femtosecond laser trapping.