Hitesh JAISING^*, Katarina GRUJIC and Olav Gaute HELLESO

Department of Physics, University of Tromso, 9037 Tromso, Norway

(Received September 24, 2004; Accepted October 23, 2004)

We report theoretical calculations and experimental data for guiding of polystyrene microspheres in the evanescent field of an optical waveguide. The waveguides used in our experiments were made using Cs⁺ ion-exchange in soda lime glass, which gives efficient trapping and high guiding velocities. The computations were done using a generalized version of Mie scattering theory, which gives good agreement with our experimental results.

Key words: evanescent fields, optical manipulation, radiation forces, integrated optics, Mie scattering

^*E-mail address: hitesh@phys.uit.no