Optical tweezers and fluid characteristics of an optical rotator with slopes on the surface upon which light is incident and a cylindrical body

Abstract

The characteristics of the optical trapping force, optical torque, and viscous drag force for a newly proposed cylindrical optical rotator are analyzed. The optical trapping force and torque are evaluated by use of a ray optics model for both parallel and focused laser beam illumination. The drag force is calculated from computational fluid dynamics to be the sum of the components of both the pressure and the shearing stress on all the surfaces of the rotator. We analyze the rotation rate by balancing the optical torque with the drag force. A cylindrical optical rotator is expected to rotate at a high speed because of its highly efficient generation of optical torque and its small viscous drag force.