Accepted for publication in 2008

RADIATION PRESSURE EFFICIENCIES OF SPHERES MADE OF

ISOTROPIC, ACHIRAL, PASSIVE, HOMOGENEOUS,
NEGATIVEPHASEVELOCITY MATERIALS
AKHLESH LAKHTAKIA
CATMAS Computational & Theoretical Materials Sciences Group,
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics,
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Abstract
Electromagnetic elds exert higher radiation pressures over isotropic, achiral, homoge-
neous, passive spheres made of negativephasevelocity materials than of positivephase
velocity materials. The optical radiation pressure can be very high if a nanoscale sphere has
negligible loss, and the real parts of its relative permittivity and/or relative permeability are
in the neighborhood of 2.
Key words: Antivacuum, nanoscale, negative phase velocity, negative refraction, nihility,
radiation pressure
1 Introduction
Electromagnetic elds carry not only energy but also momentum. Therefore, the irradiation of
an object by an electromagnetic eld causes the object to experience a radiation force. This
radiation force is typically very small. That is the reason for this force to remain experimentally
unveriable until the year 1900 (Lebedef, 1900; Nichols and Hull, 1901). The phenomenon
remained largely a matter of textbook curiosity for seven decades until Ashkin experimentally
1
demonstrated its use to accelerate and trap micronsized particles with continuouswave laser
beams (Ashkin, 1970): a small radiation force applied to a very small area can amount to a very
large radiation pressure (Ross and Lakhtakia, 2008). Optical manipulation of microparticles is
a ourishing area of research and technological development these days (Molloy et al., 2003;
McGloin, 2006).
So is the area of homogeneous materials wherein plane waves can propagate in such a
way that the phase velocity is directed in opposition to the timeaveraged Poynting vector
(Lakhtakia et al., 2002; Ramakrishna, 2005). These may be called negativephasevelocity
(NPV) materials. They exhibit the phenomenon of negative refraction, and their technological
promise for imaging, lensing, and cloaking is much touted (Pendry et al., 2006; Lapine and
Tretyakov, 2007).
The modest aim of this paper is an examination of the radiation pressure eciencies of
isotropic, passive, achiral, homogeneous spheres made of (i) NPV materials, (ii) antivacuum,
and (iii) nihility in comparison to those of spheres made of positivephasevelocity (PPV)
materials and perfect electric/magnetic conductors. Excluded from consideration are spheres
made of active, isotropic, dielectric, nonmagnetic materials, considered by some to be of the
NPV type (Skaar, 2006), because the signs of their refractive indexes turn out be irrelevant in the
present context (Lakhtakia et al., 2007). Standard formulas from the LorenzMieDebye theory
(Bohren and Human, 1983; Ch ylek et al., 1978) are used, and an exp(it) timedependence
is implicit, in the following sections.
2 Theory
Let us consider the spherical region r < a occupied by a homogeneous, isotropic, achiral, passive
material with relative permittivity
r
and relative permeability
r
, whereas the region r > a
is vacuous. Without loss of generality, the incident plane wave may be taken to be linearly
polarized and traveling along the +z axis; thus,
E
inc
(r) = E
0
u
x
exp(ik
0
z) , (1)
2
where E
0
is the amplitude, k
0
is the freespace wavenumber, and u
x
is the unit vector parallel
to the +x axis.
The incident plane wave may be represented in terms of vector spherical harmonics M
(j)
mn
(w)
and N
(j)
mn
(w) (Stratton, 1941; Bohren and Human, 1983) as follows:
E
inc
(r) = E
0

n=1
i
n
2n + 1
n(n + 1)
_
M
(1)
o1n
(k
0
r) iN
(1)
e1n
(k
0
r)
_
. (2)
Then the scattered eld may be also stated in terms of vector spherical harmonics as
E
sc
(r) = E
0

n=1
i
n
2n + 1
n(n + 1)
_
ia
n
N
(3)
e1n
(k
0
r) b
n
M
(3)
o1n
(k
0
r)
_
, r a , (3)
where the coecients (Stratton, 1941)
a
n
=

r
j
n
(N)
(1)
n
() j
n
()
(1)
n
(N)

r
j
n
(N)
(3)
n
() h
(1)
n
()
(1)
n
(N)
(4)
and
b
n
=

r
j
n
(N)
(1)
n
() j
n
()
(1)
n
(N)

r
j
n
(N)
(3)
n
() h
(1)
n
()
(1)
n
(N)
. (5)
In these equations,
N =
1/2
r

1/2
r
(6)
is the refractive index of the scattering material and = k
0
a is the size parameter of the sphere;
and j
n
(w) and h
(1)
n
(w) are the spherical Bessel function and the spherical Hankel function of
the rst kind, respectively, along with

(1)
n
(w) =
d
dw
[wj
n
(w)] (7)
and

(3)
n
(w) =
d
dw
_
wh
(1)
n
(w)
_
. (8)
The radiation pressure eciency of the sphere is computed as (Ch ylek et al., 1978)
Q
pr
= Q
ext

n=1
Re
_
n(n + 2)
n + 1
(a

n
a
n+1
+ b

n
b
n+1
) +
2n + 1
n(n + 1)
a

n
b
n
_
, (9)
where the extinction eciency
Q
ext
=
2

n=1
(2n + 1) Re (a
n
+ b
n
) . (10)
3
The foregoing expressions are valid whether the scattering material is of the NPV type or
the PPV type. By taking the limits
r
and
r
0 such that N 1, we obtain
a
n
=

(1)
n
()

(3)
n
()
, b
n
=
j
n
()
h
(1)
n
()
, (11)
for a perfect electrically conducting sphere; likewise, by taking the limits
r
0 and
r

such that N 1, we obtain
a
n
=
j
n
()
h
(1)
n
()
, b
n
=

(1)
n
()

(3)
n
()
, (12)
for a perfect magnetically conducting sphere.
If the sphere were to be made of antivacuum (Lakhtakia, 2002a), then
r
=
r
= 1
N = 1 and
a
n
b
n
n. (13)
For a sphere made of nihility (Lakhtakia, 2002a,b) which medium underlies the concept of
the socalled perfect lens (Pendry, 2001) we rst set
r
=
r
and then take the limits
r
0
and
r
0 of the right sides of (4) and (5), respectively, to obtain (Lakhtakia, 2006)
a
n
b
n
=
j
n
()
h
(1)
n
()
. (14)
The identity a
n
b
n
would also hold, albeit trivially, if the scattering sphere were to be
vacuous. Thus, the equality of the coecients a
n
and b
n
n, previously noted only for nihility
spheres (Lakhtakia, 2006), seems to be characteristic of all members of the electromagnetic
trinity (Lakhtakia, 2002a): vacuum, antivacuum, and nihility.
3 Numerical results
Ch ylek et al. (1978) studied the ne structure of the Q
pr
-k
0
a plot for almostlossless dielectric
spheres and explained the presence of sharp resonances recorded in opticallevitation exper-
iments in terms of the zerocrossings of either Im(a
n
) or Im(b
n
). Similar sharp resonances
are present in the Q
pr
-k
0
a plots of dielectricmagnetic spheres in Figs. 1 and 2, whether the
spheres are made of PPV (
r
= 2.5 + 10
4
i,
r
= 1.2 + 10
4
i) or NPV (
r
= 2.5 + 10
4
i,
4

r
= 1.2 + 10
4
i) materials, dissipation inside the spheres being of the same order as chosen
by Ch ylet et al. Some of the resonances clearly evident in both gures were easily correlated
against the zerocrossings of either Im(a
n
) or Im(b
n
).
The lowestk
0
a sharp resonance (at k
0
a 0.53) in Fig. 2 for the NPV sphere does not have
a counterpart in Fig. 1 for the PPV sphere. In order to explain, let us set
r
and
r
purely
realvalued and include only the terms for n = 1 and n = 2 on the right side of (9). Then,
Q
pr

8
3
_
_

r
1

r
+ 2
_
2
+
_

r
1

r
+ 2
_
2

r
1

r
+ 2
__

r
1

r
+ 2
_
_
(k
0
a)
4
(15)
emerges as the lowsizeparameter approximation of the radiation pressure eciency. Setting

r
= 2.5,
r
= 1.2, and k
0
a = 0.53 in this expression, we obtain Q
pr
= 15.95, which
compares very favorably in order of magnitude with the value Q
pr
= 19.04 in Fig. 2. This low
k
0
a resonance can only be exhibited by NPV spheres (for
r
and/or
r
in the neighborhood of
2), according to (15), and its exhibition is analogous to the Fr ohlich phenomenon for lossless
dielectric spheres (Bohren and Human, 1983).
Although the magnitudes of
r
and
r
are the same for the PPV and the NPV spheres in
Figs. 1 and 2, the radiation pressure eciency of the NPV sphere is considerably higher than
of the PPV sphere, virtually throughout the k
0
a range of 0 to 30. At low k
0
a, this dierence
is surely due to the Fr ohlich phenomenon; however, it persists at moderate and high values of
k
0
a. Therefore, the possibility that NPV spheres in general can be subjected to higher radiation
pressures (per unit intensity of the incident electromagnetic eld) than comparable PPV spheres
requires experimental attention, as it is bound to be signicant for optical manipulation of
nanoparticles.
The sharp resonances in the plots of Figs. 1 and 2 became evident because calculations were
made for values of k
0
a spaced at an interval of 10
2
. On the same ne scale, sharp resonances are
not present in the Q
pr
-k
0
a plots presented in Fig. 3 for antivacuum, nihility, perfect electrically
conducting, and perfect magnetically conducting spheres. The plots for both types of perfect
conductors are identical, which is in accord with (11) and (12).
5
In the limit k
0
a 0, the radiation pressure eciency
Q
pr

_

_
32
3
(k
0
a)
4
, anti vacuumsphere
14
3
(k
0
a)
4
, perfectly conducting spheres
2
3
(k
0
a)
4
, nihility sphere
. (16)
Thus, both types of perfectly conducting spheres lie about midway between the nihility and the
antivacuum sphere, insofar as the ability of plane waves to exert forces thereon is concerned.
At somewhat higher values of k
0
a, the radiation pressure eciency of either type of perfectly
conducting sphere exhibits a narrower and a taller peak than that of the antivacuum sphere,
whereas the plot for the nihility sphere does not contain a peak. Finally, at moderate to high
values of k
0
a, the radiation pressure eciencies of perfectly conducting and nihility spheres are
virtually identical, but that of the antivacuum sphere is about 40% higher for k
0
a 30. Of the
four types of spheres treated for Fig. 3, clearly the nihility sphere undergoes the least radiation
pressure.
For certain technological purposes, such as for aberrationfree at lenses (Pendry, 2001)
and cloaking (Schurig et al., 2006), impedancematching of materials with vacuum is desirable.
Nihility and antivacuum have the same impedance as vacuum. Shown in Fig. 4 are Q
pr
-k
0
a
plots for
r
=
r
[5, 5]. These plots conrm that very high radiation pressure eciencies can
be realized in the lowk
0
a regime, when
r
and
r
are in the neighborhood of 2; furthermore,
in the high-k
0
a regime, PPV spheres exhibit lower radiation pressure eciencies than the NPV
spheres which simply have the signs of
r
and
r
reversed.
4 Concluding remarks
A broad conclusion from Section 3 is that electromagnetic elds exert higher radiation pressures
over isotropic, achiral, homogeneous, passive spheres made of negativephasevelocity materials
than of positivephasevelocity materials. The radiation pressure can be very high if a sphere has
negligible loss, the real parts of its relative permittivity and/or relative permeability are in the
neighborhood of 2, and the size parameter is very small which observation is signicant for
optical manipulation of nanoscale spheres. Resonances at large size parameters are suppressed
6
for nihility and antivacuum spheres more generally, for nondissipative and impedance
matched spheres with relative permittivity between 2 and 1.
7
References
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Lett. 24:156-159.
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Particles, Chaps. 4, 11, and 12. New York: Wiley.
Ch ylek, P., Kiehl, J. T., & Ko, M. K. W. 1978. Optical levitation and partialwave
resonances. Phys. Rev. A 18:2229-2233.
Lakhtakia, A. 2002a. An electromagnetic trinity from negative permittivity and neg-
ative permeability. Int. J. Infrared Millim. Waves 23:813-818.
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23:339-343.
Lakhtakia, A. 2006. Scattering by a nihility sphere. Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett. 48:895-
896.
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opments on negative phasevelocity mediums (alias lefthanded materials), AE

U Int. J.
Electron. Commun. 56:407-410.
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3521-3537.
8
Molloy, J. E., K. Dholakia, & M. J. Padgett. 2003. Optical tweezers in a new light. J.
Modern Opt. 50:1501-1507.
Nichols, E. F., & G. F. Hull. 1901. Pressure of heat and light radiation. Phys. Rev.
13:307-320.
Pendry, J. B. 2001. Negative refraction makes a perfect lens. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85:3966-
3969.
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Science 312:1780-1782.
Ramakrishna, S. A. 2005. Physics of negative refractive index materials, Rep. Prog. Phys.
68:449-521.
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circular Bragg phenomenon, Optik 119:7-12.
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R. Smith. 2006. Metamaterial electromagnetic cloak at microwave frequencies. Science
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9
5 10 15 20 25 30
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Q
p
r
k a
0
Q
p
r
0
22 24 26 28 30
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
20
k a
0
0
0
Figure 1: Radiation pressure eciency Q
pr
of an isotropic dielectricmagnetic sphere as
a function of its size parameter k
0
a;
r
= 2.5 + 10
4
i and
r
= 1.2 + 10
4
i
N = 1.73205 + 0.00010681i. The bottom plot is a magnied view of the right third of the
top plot.
10
Q
p
r
Q
p
r
5 10 15 20 25 30
5
10
15
20
k a
0
0
0
22 24 26 28 30
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.2
20
k a
0
Figure 2: Same as Fig. 1, except that
r
= 2.5 + 10
4
i and
r
= 1.2 + 10
4
i
N = 1.73205 + 0.00010681i.
11
(a) anti-vacuum
Q
p
r
k a
0
Q
p
r
0
0
5 10 15 20 25 30
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
k a
0
(b) nihility
0
5 10 15 20 25 30
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
0
Q
p
r
(c) PEC/PMC
k a
0
0
0
5 10 15 20 25 30
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Figure 3: Radiation pressure eciency Q
pr
of an isotropic sphere as a function of its size
parameter k
0
a. (a) antivacuum sphere, (b) nihility sphere, (c) perfect electrically/magnetically
conducting sphere.
12
-4
-2
0
2
4
1
2
3
4
5
0
10
20
30
k


a 0
Q
p
r

r
r
(a)
-4
-2
0
2
4
20
22
24
26
28
30
0
1
2
3

r
r
Q
p
r
k


a
0
(b)
Figure 4: Radiation pressure eciency Q
pr
of an isotropic, nondissipative sphere as a function
of its size parameter k
0
a and the relative permittivity
r
. The sphere is impedancematched to
vacuum; i.e.,
r
=
r
. (a) lowk
0
a regime, (b) highk
0
a regime.
13