Trapping and manipulation of particles using laser beams has become an important tool in diverse fields of research. In recent years, particular interest has been devoted to the problem of conveying optically trapped particles over extended distances either downstream or upstream of the direction of photon momentum flow. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an optical analog of the famous Archimedes’ screw where the rotation of a helical-intensity beam is transferred to the axial motion of optically trapped micrometer-scale, airborne, carbon-based particles. With this optical screw, particles were easily conveyed with controlled velocity and direction, upstream or downstream of the optical flow, over a distance of half a centimeter. Our results offer a very simple optical conveyor that could be adapted to a wide range of optical trapping scenarios.

中文翻译：

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使用光学阿基米德螺杆捕获和输送颗粒

使用激光束诱捕和操纵粒子已成为各种研究领域中的重要工具。近年来，特别关注的问题是在光子动量流方向的下游或上游，在延长的距离上传输被光学捕获的颗粒。在这里，我们提出并通过实验证明了著名的阿基米德螺杆的光学模拟，其中螺旋强度光束的旋转被传递到了光学捕获的微米级，机载碳基颗粒的轴向运动。使用这种光学螺杆，可以很容易地以受控的速度和方向在半个厘米的距离内在光流的上游或下游运送颗粒。