Spinning gold nanoparticles driven by circularly polarized light

This study theoretically examines a spinning gold nanoparticle (GNP) driven by circularly polarized (CP) plane waves. The wavelength-dependent optical torques which were exerted on three different shapes of GNPs (spherical, prolate and oblate spheroids) were analyzed by utilizing Mie theory for the former and the multiple multipole method for the latter two, respectively. Numerical results show that both the absorbed and scattered photons contribute to optical torques in most cases. For the case that the CP wave is incident along the long axis of an oblate spheroid or the short axis of a prolate one, the scattering effect in optical torque is more pronounced than the absorption one. This phenomenon is significant especially when the wavelength of the CP wave is close to the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance band of the GNP. In contrast, when the CP wave is incident along the axes of revolution of these shapes of GNPs, the ratio of optical torque to absorption power is directly proportional to the wavelength. Moreover, this ratio is independent of the size and even the aspect ratio of GNPs. This result suggests that only the absorbed photons contribute to optical torques, but not the scattered ones, due to the conservation of angular momentum for cases of rotational symmetry.