Calculating the torque of the optical vortex tweezer to the ellipsoidal micro-particles

• In this paper, we have accurately computed the torque of the optical vortex tweezers to the ellipsoidal micro-particles with the method of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD).
• The transferred orbital angular momentum (OAM) from the vortex beam to the micro-particles can be obtained based on the scattering phase function (SPF) of the micro-particles.
• We have verified that the calculated SPF of a spherical particle by FDTD agree well with that by Mie theory, which indicates that the SPF of micro-particles with any shapes can be calculated by FDTD accurately.
• In addition, with the method of FDTD, we have obtained the SPFs of the different-shape ellipsoidal micro-particles with same volume, including prolate ellipsoids and oblate ellipsoids.
• The rotating angular velocities of the trapped ellipsoidal micro-particles have been investigated and discussed in detail based on the obtained corresponding SPFs.

In this paper, we have accurately computed the torque of the optical vortex tweezers to the ellipsoidal micro-particles with the method of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD). The transferred orbital angular momentum (OAM) from the vortex beam to the micro-particles can be obtained based on the scattering phase function (SPF) of the micro-particles. We have verified that the calculated SPF of a spherical particle by FDTD agrees well with that by Mie theory, which indicates that the SPF of micro-particles with any shapes can be calculated by FDTD accurately. In addition, with the method of FDTD, we have obtained the SPFs of the different-shape ellipsoidal micro-particles with same volume, including prolate ellipsoids and oblate ellipsoids. Meanwhile, the transferred OAM between the light and the ellipsoidal micro-particles have been deduced analytically by the relative formulas. And the rotating angular velocities of the trapped ellipsoidal micro-particles have been investigated and discussed in detail based on the obtained corresponding SPFs.