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Physical Review Letters

Observation of the Transfer of the Local Angular Momentum Density of a Multiringed Light Beam to an Optically Trapped Particle

Veneranda G. Garces, David McGloin, Miles J. Padgett, Wolfgang Dultz, Heidrun Schmitzer, Kishan Dholakia

Published Aug 29, 2003• 365 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We observe the spinning and orbital motion of a microscopic particle trapped within a multiringed light beam that arises from the transfer of the spin and orbital components of the light's angular momentum. The two rotation rates are measured as a function of the distance between the particle and the axis of the trapping beam. The radial dependence of these observations is found to be in close agreement with the accepted theory.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.91.093602

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We observe the spinning and orbital motion of a microscopic particle trapped within a multiringed light beam that arises from the transfer of the spin and orbital components of the light's angular momentum. The two rotation rates are measured as a function of the distance between the particle and the axis of the trapping beam. The radial dependence of these observations is found to be in close agreement with the accepted theory.
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Bessel beams have a number of properties that make them useful for optical manipulation. These include a central core which does not diffract over a characteristic distance, the reconstruction of the cross sectional intensity around obstacles and the ability of the beams to possess orbital angular momentum. Here we examine the utility of the Bessel beam to quantitatively examine the transfer of spin and orbital angular momentum to particle trapped away from the beam axis. We show the simultaneous transfer of orbital and spin angular momentum to an off-axis particle. We experimentally study how both the spin and orbital angular momentum of light behaves upon passage through microscopic optically trapped particles. Particles trapped with Gaussian and, separately, Bessel light beams in two spatially distinct sample chambers are studied with trapped objects in the first chamber acting as distorting obstacles. We examine the differences between Bessel beams and Gaussian beams in such experiments. We also show how the Bessel beam can be used to simultaneously trap particles that can be as much as 1cm away from each other. We discuss applications of these results and suggest other topics where the Bessel beam may be of use.
Photons can carry angular momentum, not only due to their spin, but also due to their spatial structure. This extra twist has been used, for example, to drive circular motion of microscopic particles in optical tweezers as well as to create vortices in quantum gases. Here we excite an atomic transition with a vortex laser beam and demonstrate the transfer of optical orbital angular momentum to the valence electron of a single trapped ion. We observe strongly modified selection rules showing that an atom can absorb two quanta of angular momentum from a single photon: one from the spin and another from the spatial structure of the beam. Furthermore, we show that parasitic ac-Stark shifts from off-resonant transitions are suppressed in the dark centre of vortex beams. These results show how light's spatial structure can determine the characteristics of light-matter interaction and pave the way for its application and observation in other systems.
Singular optical beams have been studied for many years after the pioneering work where the wave function of the laser radiation is presented as a steady-state solution of the wave equation for a harmonic oscillator. A major step in understanding the nature of singular beams has been made by introducing the concept of the angular momentum of light and analyzing local energy transfer in a vortex beam. It is now well accepted that the orbital angular momentum of light is an intrinsic feature of the optical vortex. However, the orbital angular momentum was always analyzed for travelling modes and the important issue of the orbital angular momentum associated with standing waves still remains open. The main motivation of our work is to reveal the structure of the orbital angular momentum in a standing wave formed by the counter-propagating optical vortices and study its suitability for an optical trapping and guiding. In this work we show that a superposition of two (or more) vortex beams generates a field structure which has a form of a standing wave in both the radial and longitudinal directions, but it is rotating simultaneously along the tangential direction. We demonstrate that then field of this optical vortex structure could be used as an optical trap and simultaneously transfer the angular momentum of the electromagnetic wave to an object inside the area of vortex localisation. We believe this study provides a basis for developing a novel concept of three-dimensional optical traps where vortices could be created in a local volume by a direct transfer of the angular orbital momentum of the electromagnetic wave to trapped objects.
We demonstrate the transfer of orbital angular momentum to optically levitated microparticles in vacuum [1]. We prepare two-dimensional and three-dimensional optical potentials. In the former case the microparticle is placed within a Laguerre-Gaussian beam and orbits the annular beam profile with increasing angular velocity as the air drag coefficient is reduced. We explore the particle dynamics as a function of the topological charge of the levitating beam. Our results reveal that there is a fundamental limit to the orbital angular momentum that may be transferred to a trapped particle, dependent upon the beam parameters and inertial forces present. This effect was predicted theoretically [2] and can be understood considering the underlying dynamics arising from the link between the magnitude of the azimuthal index and the beam radius [3]. Whilst a Laguerre-Gaussian beam scales in size with azimuthal index `, recently we have created a “perfect” vortex beam whose radial intensity profile and radius are both independent of topological charge [4, 5]. As the Fourier transform of a perfect vortex yields a Bessel beam. Imaging a perfect vortex, with its subsequent propagation thus realises a complex three dimensional optical field. In this scenario we load individual silica microparticles into this field and observe their trajectories. The optical gradient and scattering forces interplay with the inertial and gravitational forces acting on the trapped particle, including the rotational degrees of freedom. As a result the trapped microparticle exhibits a complex three dimensional motion that includes a periodic orbital motion between the Bessel and the perfect vortex beam. We are able to determine the three dimensional optical potential in situ by tracking the particle. This first demonstration of trapping microparticles within a complex three dimensional optical potential in vacuum opens up new possibilities for fundamental studies of many-body dynamics, mesoscopic entanglement [6, 7], and optical binding [8, 9].