Full-Wave Analysis of Nanoscale Optical Trapping

E. Furlani, and A. Baev
The Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
Published in 2008

Plasmonic-based optical trapping is in its infancy and growing rapidly. Research in this area will significantly advance fundamental understanding in fields such as nanophotonics and biophotonics. Novel plasmonic trapping structures and systems can be designed and optimized using the COMSOL RF solver.

We present a study of plasmonicbased optical trapping of neutral sub-wavelength particles in proximity to illuminated metallic nanostructures. We compute the dipolar force on the particles using 3D full-wave electromagnetic analysis, and perform parametric studies of the force as a function of the incident wavelength and background medium.

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