Work

Scattering detection of a solenoidal Poynting vector field

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: The Poynting vector S plays a central role in electrodynamics as it is directly related to the power and the momentum carried by an electromagnetic wave. In the presence of multiple electromagnetic waves with different polarizations and propagation directions, the Poynting vector may exhibit solenoidal components which are not associated to any power flow. Here, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the presence of such solenoidal components has physical consequences, and it is not a mere artifact of the gauge invariance of S. In particular, we identify a simple field configuration displaying solenoidal components of S and theoretically show that a judiciously designed scatterer can act as a "Poynting vector detector" which when immersed in such field distribution would experience a transverse optical force orthogonal to the incidence plane. We experimentally validate our theoretical predictions by observing a pronounced asymmetry in the scattering pattern of a spherical nanoparticle.

Source: Optics Letters

DOI: 10.1364/ol.41.003615

Authors: Shima Fardad, Alessandro Salandrino, Akbar Samadi, Matthias Heinrich, Zhigang Chen, Demetrios N. Christodoulides

Institutions: University of Central Florida, University of Kansas, San Francisco State University

Language: English

Topic: Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, Army Research Office

Awards: MRSEC: Center for Nanoscale Science, RUI: Edge States and Vortices in Photonic Graphene-Like Structures, G4286736973