Abstract

Controlling optomechanical interactions at sub-wavelength levels is of great importance in academic science and nanoparticle manipulation technologies. This Letter focuses on the improvement of the recoil force on nanoparticles placed close to a graphene–dielectric–metal structure. The momentum conservation involving the non-symmetric excitation of acoustic surface plasmons (ASPs), via near-field circularly polarized dipolar scattering, implies the occurrence of a huge momentum kick on the nanoparticle. Owing to the high wave vector values entailed in the near-field scattering process, it has been necessary to consider the non-locality of the graphene electrical conductivity to explore the influence of the scattering loss on this large wave vector region, which is neglected by the semiclassical model. Surprisingly, the contribution of ASPs to the recoil force is negligibly modified when the non-local effects are incorporated through the graphene conductivity. On the contrary, our results show that the contribution of the non-local scattering loss to this force becomes dominant when the particle is placed very close to the graphene sheet and that it is mostly independent of the dielectric thickness layer. Our work can be helpful for designing new and better performing large plasmon momentum optomechanical structures using scattering highly dependent on the polarization for moving dielectric nanoparticles.

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