Abstract

We put forward a novel, twofold scheme that enables, at the same time, all-optical enantioselection and sorting of single multipolar chiral microspheres based on optical pulling forces exerted by two non-collinear, non-structured, circularly polarized light sources. Our chiral resolution method can be externally controlled by varying the angle between their incident wavevectors, allowing for fine-tuning of the range of chiral indices for enantioselection. Enantioselectivity is achieved by choosing angles such that only particles with the same handedness of the light sources are pulled. This proposal allows one to achieve all-optical sorting of chiral microspheres with arbitrarily small chiral parameters, thus outperforming current optical methods.

© 2021 Optical Society of America

Selective transport of chiral particles by optical pulling forces

Hongxia Zheng, Xiao Li, Huajin Chen, and Zhifang Lin
Opt. Express 29(26) 42684-42695 (2021)

Enantioselective transport of chiral spheres using focused femtosecond laser pulses

Rfaqat Ali and Ying Wu
Opt. Express 31(18) 29716-29729 (2023)

Probing the optical chiral response of single nanoparticles with optical tweezers

Rfaqat Ali, F. A. Pinheiro, R. S. Dutra, F. S. S. Rosa, and P. A. Maia Neto
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 37(9) 2796-2803 (2020)

Tailoring the gradient and scattering forces for longitudinal sorting of generic-size chiral particles

Hongxia Zheng, Xiao Li, Jack Ng, Huajin Chen, and Zhifang Lin
Opt. Lett. 45(16) 4515-4518 (2020)

Lateral optical force on paired chiral nanoparticles in linearly polarized plane waves

Huajin Chen, Yikun Jiang, Neng Wang, Wanli Lu, Shiyang Liu, and Zhifang Lin
Opt. Lett. 40(23) 5530-5533 (2015)