Type of hyperbolic-cosine-form inseparable phase and its application in particle manipulation

The ability to engineer the distribution of light with high precision is the key to improving the control accuracy and freedom of optical manipulation. Instead of traditional optical manipulation based on using the three-dimensional adjustable displacement platform, our report demonstrates that evolutions of light field distributions during propagation can be used to manipulate particles. By devising a hyperbolic-cosine-form inseparable phase, we theoretically endow the partially coherent light beam with the optional self-stretching or self-splitting ability. Importantly, we achieved the controllable separation of the particles in our experiment by using this self-splitting ability. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of manipulating particles by using light beam evolutions and further improve the control freedom and precision of traditional optical tweezers.