Abstract

In this Letter, we report the experimental observations of a tunable curved photonic nanojet (photonic hook) generated by a 5 µm polydimethylsiloxane microcylinder deposited on a silicon substrate and illuminated by 405 nm laser beam. A moveable opaque aluminum-mask is mounted in front of the microcylinder implementing partial illumination and imparting spatial curvature to the photonic nanojet. Experimental results of main parameters (tilt angle, width, and intensity) of emerging photonic hooks exhibit close agreement with numerical predictions of the near-field optical structures. The experimentally measured full widths at half-maximum of photonic hooks are ${0.48}\lambda$, ${0.56}\lambda$, and ${0.76}\lambda$ for tilt angles of $\theta = {0}^\circ$, 5.7°, and 20.1°, respectively. Photonic hooks possess great potential in complex manipulation such as super-resolution imaging, surface fabrication, and optomechanical manipulation along curved trajectories.

© 2020 Optical Society of America

Experimental verification of twin photonic nanojets from a dielectric microcylinder

Cheng-Yang Liu and Meng-Ju Yeh
Opt. Lett. 44(13) 3262-3265 (2019)

Photonic hooks from Janus microcylinders

Guoqiang Gu, Liyang Shao, Jun Song, Junle Qu, Kai Zheng, Xingliang Shen, Zeng Peng, Jie Hu, Xiaolong Chen, Ming Chen, and Qiang Wu
Opt. Express 27(26) 37771-37780 (2019)

Photonic hook generated by the Janus microcylinder under point-source illumination

Cheng-Yang Liu, Yu-Bin Chen, Chuan Li, Wei-Yu Chen, and Shuo-Chih Chien
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 38(10) 2938-2944 (2021)

Photonic hook: a new curved light beam

Liyang Yue, Oleg V. Minin, Zengbo Wang, James N. Monks, Alexander S. Shalin, and Igor V. Minin
Opt. Lett. 43(4) 771-774 (2018)

Direct imaging of optimal photonic nanojets from core-shell microcylinders

Cheng-Yang Liu and Kai-Lung Hsiao
Opt. Lett. 40(22) 5303-5306 (2015)