Optical binding uses the fact that each object placed into the optical field modifies this field and at the same time interacts with other objects in the field. Under certain circumstances these objects can self-organize and create so called "optically bound matter". This happens for various sizes of particles and therefore there is no unique method for the theoretical description of the phenomena. If the objects are small compared with wavelength then they can be approximated as single dipoles. On the other hand paraxial wave theory is acceptable for particles with sizes in multiples of the wavelength. We develop a method based on coupled dipole method (CDM) or also known as a discrete dipole approximation (DDA). This numerical method covers the range of sizes when particles are comparable or smaller then wavelength. For some cases the comparison with paraxial wave theory is also possible. Our aim is to specify conditions suitable for creation of optically bound systems which are experimentally verifiable.

Date Published: 12 April 2007
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 6609, 15th Czech-Polish-Slovak Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 660909 (12 April 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.739376

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6609:
15th Czech-Polish-Slovak Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics
Miroslav Miler; Dagmar Senderáková; Miroslav Hrabovský, Editor(s)