Optically bound chain of microparticles

摘要

We present the first creation of extended longitudinally optically bound chains of microparticles in one dimension. Two counter-propagating "non-diffracting" beams, so called Bessel beams, were used to illuminate the submicrometer sized polystyrene particles immersed in water. Beam homogeneity and extended propagation allowed the creation of 200 microns long chains of organised micro-particles. Furthermore two types of multistability were observed: short range multistability within a single chain and a long-range multi-stability between several distinct chains. Our observations are supported by theoretical results of the coupled dipole method.