Microparticle optical trapping of silica gel by Au-NP Q-switched fiber laser pulses

• Published in: Optics and lasers in engineering Vol. 168; p. 107669
• Main Authors: Mahmud, N.N.H.E.N., Awang, N.A., Zulkefli, N.U.H.H., Hanafiah, F.N.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2023
• Subjects: Gold nanoparticle; Microparticle optical trapping; Optical force; Q-switched fiber laser; Microparticle optical trapping; Optical force; Gold nanoparticle; Q-switched fiber laser
• ISSN: 0143-8166; 1873-0302
• DOI: 10.1016/j.optlaseng.2023.107669

•Gold nanoparticle (Au-NP) coated with side polished fiber (SPF) as a saturable absorber (SA) for Q-switched fiber laser (QFL) generation.•Microparticle optical trapping of silica gel by Au-NP Q-switched fiber laser pulses is a new approach in research related to micrometer-sized objects and kept in good agreement with the simulation results.•A smaller optical force influences the silica gel's microparticle to trap.•Shifting of wavelength and frequency of Au-NP SPF QFL showing the proposed method enables absorption microparticle trapping. This study demonstrates a method for microparticle optical trapping of silica gel using a stable Q-switched fiber laser (QFL) pulse. Gold nanoparticle (Au-NP) were fabricated as saturable absorbers on a side-polished optical fiber (SPF) to achieve stable QFL pulses of frequencies 25.81 kHz. Silica gel microparticles with a radius of 300–400 µm produced a dissimilar attractive trapping force based on the viscous drag exerted on the light field of the QFL. Shifts were observed at wavelengths of 1533.8–1541.0 nm and frequencies of 25.81–28.87 kHz. The validity of the numerical model is proven and the proposed model can be applied to examine the behavior of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) modes in microparticle optical trapping. These findings confirm that the proposed system facilitates absorption microparticle trapping at the 1540 nm wavelength region.