History-Dependent Optical Force from Bistable Nonlinear Permittivity in Pulsed Traps
A self-consistent formalism for the optical trapping force on a small-but-finite Rayleigh particle whose nonlinear permittivity depends on its internal field, which in turn depends on the permittivity. Within a window of input power this feedback loop admits multiple self-consistent permittivity values, producing optical bistability and hysteresis. As a result the optical force in a pulsed trap (e.g. counter-propagating ultrashort pulses) becomes history-dependent, determined not only by the field at the particle's current location but by its past trajectory. Corrects prior models that assume permittivity varies smoothly with incident field strength.
Non-linear bistability in pulsed optical traps Alex J. Vernon, Francisco J. Rodr´ıguez-Fortu˜no
This physics-optics paper develops a self-consistent theory of the optical force in pulsed optical traps that captures optical bistability and hysteresis. Existing force models treat a trapped partic…