Optical tweezers employing forces produced by light underpin important manipulation tools employed in numerous areas of applied and biological physics. Conventional optical tweezers are widely based on refractive optics, and they require excessive auxiliary optical elements to reshape both amplitude and phase, as well as wavevector and angular momentum of light, and thus impose limitations on the overall cost and integration of optical systems. Metamaterials can provide both electric and optically induced magnetic responses in subwavelength optical structures, and they are highly beneficial to achieve unprecedented control of light required for many applications and can open new opportunities for optical manipulation. Here, we review the recent advances in the field of optical manipulation employing the physics and concepts of metamaterials and demonstrate that metamaterial structures could not only help to advance classical operations such as trapping, transporting, and sorting of particles, but they can uncover exotic optical forces such as pulling and lateral forces. In addition, apart from optical manipulation of particles (that can also be called “meta-tweezers”), metamaterials can be powered dynamically by light to realize ingenious “meta-robots.” This review culminates with an outlook discussing future novel opportunities in this recently emerged field ranging from enhanced particle manipulation to meta-robot actuation.
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September 2022
Review Article|
August 17 2022
Optical manipulation with metamaterial structures
Yuzhi Shi
;
Yuzhi Shi
(Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
Institute of Precision Optical Engineering, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University
, Shanghai 200092, China
2
MOE Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-Structured Materials
, Shanghai 200092, China
3
Shanghai Institute of Intelligent Science and Technology, Tongji University
, Shanghai 200092, China
4
Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Digital Optics
, Shanghai 200092, China
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Qinghua Song
;
Qinghua Song
a)
(Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
5
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University
, Shenzhen 518055, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: song.qinghua@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn; zhuweiming@uestc.edu.cn; yf_yu@njust.edu.cn; yuri.kivshar@anu.edu.au; and eaqliu@ntu.edu.sg
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Ivan Toftul
;
Ivan Toftul
(Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
6
Nonlinear Physics Centre, Research School of Physics, Australian National University
, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
7
School of Physics and Engineering, ITMO University
, St. Petersburg 197101, Russia
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Tongtong Zhu
;
Tongtong Zhu
(Writing – original draft)
8
School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology
, Dalian 116024, China
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Yefeng Yu;
Yefeng Yu
a)
(Supervision, Writing – original draft)
9
School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology
, Nanjing 210094, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: song.qinghua@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn; zhuweiming@uestc.edu.cn; yf_yu@njust.edu.cn; yuri.kivshar@anu.edu.au; and eaqliu@ntu.edu.sg
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Weiming Zhu;
Weiming Zhu
a)
(Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
10
School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
, Chengdu 610054, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: song.qinghua@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn; zhuweiming@uestc.edu.cn; yf_yu@njust.edu.cn; yuri.kivshar@anu.edu.au; and eaqliu@ntu.edu.sg
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Din Ping Tsai
;
Din Ping Tsai
(Writing – original draft)
11
Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong
, Hong Kong, China
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Yuri Kivshar
;
Yuri Kivshar
a)
(Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
6
Nonlinear Physics Centre, Research School of Physics, Australian National University
, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: song.qinghua@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn; zhuweiming@uestc.edu.cn; yf_yu@njust.edu.cn; yuri.kivshar@anu.edu.au; and eaqliu@ntu.edu.sg
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Ai Qun Liu
Ai Qun Liu
a)
(Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
12
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
, Singapore 639798a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: song.qinghua@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn; zhuweiming@uestc.edu.cn; yf_yu@njust.edu.cn; yuri.kivshar@anu.edu.au; and eaqliu@ntu.edu.sg
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a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: song.qinghua@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn; zhuweiming@uestc.edu.cn; yf_yu@njust.edu.cn; yuri.kivshar@anu.edu.au; and eaqliu@ntu.edu.sg
Appl. Phys. Rev. 9, 031303 (2022)
Article history
Received:
March 13 2022
Accepted:
July 14 2022
Citation
Yuzhi Shi, Qinghua Song, Ivan Toftul, Tongtong Zhu, Yefeng Yu, Weiming Zhu, Din Ping Tsai, Yuri Kivshar, Ai Qun Liu; Optical manipulation with metamaterial structures. Appl. Phys. Rev. 1 September 2022; 9 (3): 031303. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0091280
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