Enantioselection and chiral sorting of single microspheres using optical pulling forces

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOptics letters Vol. 46; no. 7; p. 1640
Main Authors Ali, Rfaqat, Dutra, R S, Pinheiro, F A, Maia Neto, P A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.04.2021
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.419150