Trapping Rayleigh particles using highly focused higher-order radially polarized beams

The optical trapping characteristics of highly focused higher-order radially polarized beams (R-TEM_p1*) acting on a Rayleigh particle are studied theoretically. Numerical results show that as the order p of beam increases and the numerical aperture NA_o of the objective decreases, the axial trap distance increases but the trap depth and maximum restoring force decreases. In a limit of NA_o = 1, three higher-order R-TEM_p1* beams of p = 1, 2, 3, like the fundamental lowest-order radially polarized beam of p = 0, can three-dimensionally trap a particle to the focus but the axial trap stiffness decreases with the increase of p. When NA_o = 0.95, the focus is still a stable trap point for the two beams of p = 0 and 1 but it becomes an unstable trap point for the two beams of p = 2 and 3. The trap stability is also discussed for higher-order radially polarized beam illumination.