Near-field optical micromanipulation with cavity enhanced evanescent waves

We show that the forces associated with near-field optical micromanipulation can be greatly increased through the use of cavity enhanced evanescent waves. This approach utilizes a resonant dielectric waveguide structure and a prism coupler to produce Fabry-Perot-like cavity modes at a dielectric-fluid interface. Fabricated structures show a ten times enhancement in the optical interaction and optical force for micrometer-sized colloids. In addition, stable accumulation and ordering of large scale arrays of colloids are demonstrated using two counter-propagating cavity enhanced evanescent waves. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.