Enhancing optical trapping with topological-charge-tailored Airyprime-Gaussian beam arrays
Abstract
Airy and Airy-related optical beams, due to their extraordinary propagation characteristics such as self-bending and auto-focusing, provide a new degree of freedom for optical micro-manipulation. However, most studies are limited to low-efficiency single-position trapping. In this work, we introduce a class of Airy-related beam arrays that are the coherent superposition of off-axis Airyprime-Gaussian beams, called dual-ring Airyprime-Gaussian vortex beam arrays, capable of multi-position capture and improving capture stiffness simultaneously. By judiciously adjusting the beam parameters and topological charges in inner and outer rings, the beam intensity profiles with a controllable number of light spots at the focal plane or multiple-focusing optical bottle-like profiles along the propagation axis can be achieved. Using these advantages, we experimentally demonstrate the multi-particle trapping with an enhancement of trap stiffness by 46.42% compared with the same type of optical capture. Further, in optical bottle capture, our experimental results show that it can save 73.86% power by virtue of auto-focusing properties. Our strategy overcomes the limitations of conventional holographic optical tweezers, enabling high-performance, low-power-consumption, multi-axial-positions trapping of multiple particles.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
Nonlinear Photonic Systems
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Photonics Research
- Publisher
- Optica Publishing Group
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1182–1182
- Publication date
- 2 January 2026
- Language
- EN