Optical forces on submicron particles induced by full Poincare beams

In this paper, we have considered the optical forces acting on submicron particles induced by arbitrary-order full Poincare (FP) beams. Different from the traditional scalar beams, the optical forces of the FP beams include three contributions: the scattering, gradient, and curl forces. The last contribution is due to both the vectorial properties of the FP beams' polarization and the rotating phase structure of the FP beams. We analytically derive all components of the optical forces of the FP beams acting on Rayleigh particles. The numerical results show that the optical curl force is very significant to the absorbing Rayleigh particles, and it has the same order with the scattering force. The total vortex force fields and their trapping effects of different order FP beams on the absorbing dielectric and metallic Rayleigh particles are discussed in detail. Our results may stimulate further investigations on the trapping effect of various vector-vortex beams on submicron or nanometer sized objects. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America