Optical Trapping in a Liquid Environment

Neil V. Budko

Michiel de Reus
where

Ivan Flanegin

Abstract We investigate the possibility of lightdriven hydrodynamic ows during optical trapping experiments in a liquid host medium1 . Such ows are predicted by one of the several alternative formulations of the momentum conservation law for the electromagnetic elds in media. Here we discuss the numerical solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with the electromagnetic body force term.

fH =

1 (D E E D) 2 1 + (B H H B) . 2

(4)

is the so-called Helmholtz force density. After time averaging over a period of harmonic oscillations the Helmholtz force will be the only SUMMARY non-zero contribution to both the Abraham and Minkowski force densities. More importantly, in Modeling of the trapping of microscopic particles a homogeneous lossless medium by laser beams requires both the Maxwell equations and the mechanical laws of motion. If the particle f A = f M = f H = 0, , = const. (5) is immersed in a liquid host medium one also needs The third form of the momentum conservation to take into account the friction, i.e., the drag force. law is based on the induced-currents approach to It may well turn out that there is yet another inthe elds in media, as opposed to the uxes apteraction at play in such liquid-based optical traps. proach leading to (2)(4). It features the following This possibility is related to the lack of consensus (Lorentz) force density: as far as the form of the momentum conservation law for the electromagnetic eld is concerned. ind ind H 0 Kind E, f L = ind e E + m H + 0 J Mathematically the conservation of momentum t is expressed as ind = Jind dt ,
e

T t P = f ,

(1)

ind m

=
0

Kind dt . (6)

where T is the stress tensor density, P is the momentum density, and f is the force density. The controversy is in the relation of the above quantities to the electromagnetic eld. It turns out that several dierent relations of the form (1) can be directly derived from the Maxwell equations. As the force density is responsible for the exchange of momentum between physical systems the dierence in these expressions means that there is no agreement about the mechanical force that the electromagnetic eld will exert on objects. The two well-known expressions (due to Abraham and Minkowski) propose the following forms for the force density in the part of the domain without external currents/charges:

Remarkably, in a linear non-magnetic homogeneous dispersive medium the time-averaged Lorentz force density is not zero: fL = 1 } + 1 0 Re{S }, (7) 0 ( 0 )Im{S 2 2

= E H is the complex Poynting vecwhere S , H satisfy the tor, the complex eld amplitudes E frequency-domain Maxwells equations, and ( ) = ( )+ i ( ) is the complex permittivity of the homogeneous medium. If the homogeneous medium is a solid, then there is no actual dierence between the Helmholtz and the Lorentz forces, since an innite solid homoge 1 neous medium has an innite mass and cannot be ( E H ) , (2) fA = fH + t c2 moved by any force. Also, there is no dierence f M = f H, (3) in the action of both forces on a nite solid body [2]. Of course, if a solid is deformable, either elasti Numerical Analysis, DIAM, Delft University of Techcally or inelastically, then such deformations could nology, Mekelweg 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands; e-mail: be detected as suggested in [3]. n.v.budko@tudelft.nl 1 This is a summary of our recent work [1] currently conTo make our model of an optical trap more precise we have considered a homogeneous liquid and sidered for publication elsewhere.

978-1-4673-5707-4/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

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the ows that the Lorentz force could produce in it. To this end we have solved numerically the system of incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled to the heat transport law, the Boussinesq approximation, and the Lorentz force density: v = 0, 0 t v + 0 (v )v v + p = f , 0 cp t T + 0 cp (v )T k T = q, + g, = 0 [1 (T T0 )] , f= f
L 2 2

(8) (9) (10) (11) (12)

where v(x, t) is the local velocity of uid, p(x, t) is the pressure, 0 is the mass density, is the viscosity, f (x, t) is the applied volumetric body force density, T (x, t) is the temperature, cp is the specic heat capacity at constant pressure, q (x, t) is the heat source density, g is the acceleration due to gravity, f L is the time-averaged Lorentz force density (7), T0 is the reference temperature (before the heat source q is applied), and is the thermal expansion coecient of the uid. It turns out that the hydrodynamic ows produced by a focused laser beam similar to the one used in optical traps are rather signicant, in the order of tens of /s. Also we have found out that these are largely Stokes ows, meaning that a linear approximation of (9) would be sucient. To understand the role such light-induced ows may play in optical trapping consider the dynamics of a particle that is subject to both the electromagnetic force Fem and the drag force Fdrag from the host liquid: d2 x = Fem + Fdrag . (13) dt2 For a small lossless dielectric particle immersed in water the electromagnetic force is approximated by the so-called gradient force: m Fem Fgrad = r3 Re(w ) p /0 1 |E|2 , (14) p /0 + 2

The fact that the light acts on both the particle and the host medium makes this an interesting problem. The light-liquid-particle coupling is via the drag force, which for small radii is stronger than the direct light-particle coupling. This means that a small particle will tend to follow the lightinduced ow rather than be trapped by the gradient force of the beam. Thus, the predicted lightinduced ows could be detected by observing the dynamics of small particles near optical traps. Our research shows that the detailed numerical modeling of liquid-based optical traps is not only useful for the accurate quantitative analysis of their eciency but may also help to resolve the old controversy about the momentum conservation law for the electromagnetic eld. References [1] M. de Reus and N.V. Budko, On the mechanical interaction of light with homogeneous liquids, submitted for publication, preprint available at arXiv:1305.0174, 2013. [2] M. Dienerowitz, M. Mazilu, and K. Dholakia, Optical manipulation of nanoparticles: a review, Journal of Nanophotonics, 2, 021875, 2008. [3] W. Frias and A.I. Smolyakov, Electromagnetic forces and internal stresses in dielectric media, Phys. Rev. E, 85, 046606, 2012.

where w and p are the permittivities of the water and particle respectively. The drag force can approximated by the Stokes drag Fdrag 6w ru, where w is the dynamic viscosity of water, r is the particle radius, and u is the particle velocity with respect to the stationary uid. Let v be the velocity of the light-induced ow. Then, the drag force is Fdrag = 6w r(v dx/dt), and the equation of motion becomes m dx d2 x = + 6w r 2 dt dt (15) p /0 1 r3 Re(w ) |E|2 + 6w rv. p /0 + 2

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