Journal
SMALL METHODS
Volume 7, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202201545
Keywords
colloidal microparticles; optical manipulation; optical tweezers; solitons; waveguides
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Light can be guided without diffraction using optical fibers and waveguides, or by creating spatial solitons in optically nonlinear media. This study introduces a new approach where a self-stabilized optical waveguide is formed by a chain of polymer microparticles and propelled through water. The properties of the waveguide depend on the diameter-to-wavelength ratio.
Light can be guided without diffraction in prefabricated structures: optical fibers and waveguides or in actively created spatial solitons in optically nonlinear media. Here, an approach in which a self-stabilized optical waveguide develops from a reservoir of building blocks-spherical polymer microparticles (MPs)-and is pushed through an optically passive medium-water-is presented. The optical waveguide, formed by a chain of these microparticles and one microsphere wide, is self-stabilized and propelled by the guided light, while its geometrical and dynamical properties depend on the diameter-to-wavelength ratio. The smallest investigated particles, 500 nm in diameter, form single-mode waveguides up to tens of micrometers long, with the length limited only by optical losses. In contrast, waveguides constructed of larger MPs, 1 and 2.5 mu m in diameter, are limited in length to only a few particles due to interference of different modes and beating of light intensity.
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