Probing the chirality of a single microsphere trapped by a focused vortex beam through its orbital period
When microspheres are illuminated by tightly focused vortex beams, they can be trapped in a non-equilibrium steady state where they orbit around the optical axis. By using the Mie-Debye theory for optical tweezers, we demonstrate that the orbital period strongly depends on the particle's chirality index. Taking advantage of such sensitivity, we put forth a method to experimentally characterize with high precision the chiroptical response of individual optically trapped particles. The method allows for an enhanced precision at least one order of magnitude larger than that of similar existing enantioselective approaches. It is particularly suited to probe the chiroptical response of individual particles, for which light-chiral matter interactions are typically weak.
Authors
- Arthur Luna da Fonseca (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0867-6999)
- Kainã Diniz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8341-958X)
- Gert‐Ludwig Ingold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4851-2198)
- Tanja Schoger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2897-220X)
- Nathan B. Viana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2528-0876)
- F. A. Pinheiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8712-0555)
- Paulo A. Maia Neto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5287-172X)
- Diney S. Ether (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6047-5022)
- R. S. Dutra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1897-2313)
Institutions
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
- University of Augsburg (DE)
- Instituto Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
- National Institute of Science and Technology for Structural Biology and Bioimaging (BR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nanophotonics
- Published
- 2025-01-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2024-0517
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.74
Funders
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
- Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Fluidos Complexos