We present our investigation of the torque exerted on dielectric elliptical cylinders by highly focused laser beams. The calculations are performed with rigorous diffraction theory, and the size-dependent torque is analyzed as a function of the axis ratio. It is found that highly elongated particles will experience a reversal of the torque for a radius that is approximately one third of the wavelength. This effect is attributed to interference effects inside the structure due to multiple reflections of the incoming wave. The evolution from a perfectly sinusoidal angular dependence of the torque to a more complicated pattern for increasing particle size is presented in detail.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• Internal and near-surface electromagnetic fields for an infinite cylinder illuminated by an arbitrary focused beam (JOSAA)
• Effects of surface perturbations on the quality and the focused-beam excitation of microsphere resonance (JOSAA)
• Fluorescence image of a single molecule in a microsphere: model (JOSAB)
• Electromagnetic fields for a spheroidal particle with an arbitrary embedded source (JOSAA)
• Modeling illumination-mode near-field optical microscopy of Au nanoparticles (JOSAA)

Related Conference Papers

• Investigations on the Origin of the Terahertz Transmission through Random Metallic Media
• 3-D Numerical Simulations of Light Scattering from 2-D Silver-Nanorod Hexagonal Arrays Embedded in Nano-Gap Substrates
• High-Accuracy Calculations of Light Scattering by Plasmonic Cylinders Using the Legendre Pseudospectral Frequency-Domain (PSFD) Method
• Near-field Light Focusing by Wavelength-sized Dielectric Spheroids for Photovoltaic applications
• Near-field Light Focusing by Wavelength-sized Dielectric Spheroids for Photovoltaic applications