Manipulating the Lorentz force via the chirality of nanoparticles

•A single plane wave pulling a chiral nanoparticle toward light source is presented.•The equivalence of the forces relating to bound charges is numerically validated.•The gradient force is mainly contributed by currents of cross-polarized waves.•Forces are affected by medium parameters and impedance mismatch.

We demonstrate that a single plane wave pulls a chiral nanoparticle toward the light source. The nanoparticle exhibits optical gain in a particular wavelength region. The equivalence of the generalized and alternative expressions of the Lorentz force density relating to bound charges for chiral media is numerically validated. By considering the two-dimensional electromagnetic problem of incident plane waves normally impinged on active chiral cylinders, it is shown that the gradient force is mainly contributed by the bound electric and magnetic current densities of the cross-polarized waves. We also investigate how the medium parameters and impedance mismatch can be used to manipulate the pulling or pushing Lorentz forces between two chiral cylinders. This finding may provide a recipe to understand the light interaction with multiple chiral nanoparticles of arbitrary shapes (in general) with the aid of the numerical approach. It could be a promising avenue in controlling the optical micromanipulation for chiral nanoparticles with mirroring asymmetry.