Rotation of nanowires with radially higher-order Laguerre-Gaussian beams produced by computer-generated holograms

In this paper, the influence of radially higher index p of Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams on the rotation of nanowires is studied. Radially higher-order LG beams are produced by computer-generated holograms, which are displayed on a spatial light modulator. A series of experiments on manipulating ZnO nanowires was performed on our holographic optical tweezers platform. The experiments demonstrated that radially higher-order LG beams could effectively rotate nanowires along the innermost bright ring of themselves. Compared with radially low-order LG beams, they have larger torques exerted on nanowires and can make nanowires rotate more quickly. c 2012 Optical Society of America