Optical levitation of spheres: analytical development and numerical computations of the force equations

Abstract

The force that is produced from the momentum change of a stream of photons incident upon micrometer-sized spheres is developed from a ray-optic model. The resulting force component expressions, axial and radial with respect to the photon stream center and incident direction, are in a form that makes them suitable for computer modeling of the levitation phenomena. Simulated results presented are in excellent agreement with published experimental observations.