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Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters

Intense light traps and binds small particles, offering unique control to the microscopic world. With incoming illumination and radiative losses, optical forces are inherently nonconservative, thus non-Hermitian. Contrary to conventional systems, the operator governing time evolution is real and asy...

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Autores principales: Li, Xiao, Liu, Yineng, Lin, Zhifang, Ng, Jack, Chan, C. T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593170/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34782596
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26732-8
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author Li, Xiao
Liu, Yineng
Lin, Zhifang
Ng, Jack
Chan, C. T.
author_facet Li, Xiao
Liu, Yineng
Lin, Zhifang
Ng, Jack
Chan, C. T.
author_sort Li, Xiao
collection PubMed
description Intense light traps and binds small particles, offering unique control to the microscopic world. With incoming illumination and radiative losses, optical forces are inherently nonconservative, thus non-Hermitian. Contrary to conventional systems, the operator governing time evolution is real and asymmetric (i.e., non-Hermitian), which inevitably yield complex eigenvalues when driven beyond the exceptional points, where light pumps in energy that eventually “melts” the light-bound structures. Surprisingly, unstable complex eigenvalues are prevalent for clusters with ~10 or more particles, and in the many-particle limit, their presence is inevitable. As such, optical forces alone fail to bind a large cluster. Our conclusion does not contradict with the observation of large optically-bound cluster in a fluid, where the ambient damping can take away the excess energy and restore the stability. The non-Hermitian theory overturns the understanding of optical trapping and binding, and unveils the critical role played by non-Hermiticity and exceptional points, paving the way for large-scale manipulation.
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spelling pubmed-85931702021-11-19 Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters Li, Xiao Liu, Yineng Lin, Zhifang Ng, Jack Chan, C. T. Nat Commun Article Intense light traps and binds small particles, offering unique control to the microscopic world. With incoming illumination and radiative losses, optical forces are inherently nonconservative, thus non-Hermitian. Contrary to conventional systems, the operator governing time evolution is real and asymmetric (i.e., non-Hermitian), which inevitably yield complex eigenvalues when driven beyond the exceptional points, where light pumps in energy that eventually “melts” the light-bound structures. Surprisingly, unstable complex eigenvalues are prevalent for clusters with ~10 or more particles, and in the many-particle limit, their presence is inevitable. As such, optical forces alone fail to bind a large cluster. Our conclusion does not contradict with the observation of large optically-bound cluster in a fluid, where the ambient damping can take away the excess energy and restore the stability. The non-Hermitian theory overturns the understanding of optical trapping and binding, and unveils the critical role played by non-Hermiticity and exceptional points, paving the way for large-scale manipulation. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-11-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8593170/ /pubmed/34782596 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26732-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Li, Xiao
Liu, Yineng
Lin, Zhifang
Ng, Jack
Chan, C. T.
Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters
title Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters
title_full Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters
title_fullStr Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters
title_full_unstemmed Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters
title_short Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters
title_sort non-hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593170/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34782596
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26732-8
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