Colloquium: Gripped by light: Optical binding

0350855 - ÚPT 2011 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Dholakia, K. - Zemánek, Pavel
Colloquium: Gripped by light: Optical binding.
Reviews of Modern Physics. Roč. 82, č. 2 (2010), s. 1767-1791. ISSN 0034-6861. E-ISSN 1539-0756
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA202/09/0348; GA MŠMT(CZ) LC06007
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20650511
Keywords : discrete-dipole approximation * artificial kerr medium * focused laser-beam * near-field optics * radiation pressure * electromagnetic force * trapping force * nonlinear nanosuspensions * spherical nanoparticles * metal nanoparticles
Subject RIV: BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers
Impact factor: 51.695, year: 2010

The light-matter interaction has been at the heart of major advances from the atomic scale right to the microscopic scale over the past four decades. Confinement by light, embodied by the area of optical trapping, has had a major influence across all of the natural sciences. However, an emergent and powerful topic within this field that has steadily merged but not gained much recognition is optical binding: the importance of exploring the optically mediated interaction between assembled objects that can cause attractive and repulsive forces and dramatically influence the way they assemble and organize themselves. This offers routes for colloidal self-assembly, crystallization, and organization of templates for biological and colloidal sciences. In this Colloquium, this emergent area is reviewed looking at the pioneering experiments in the field and the various theoretical approaches that aim to describe this behavior.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0190744