Applications of optomechanical effects for on-chip manipulation of light signals

We review recent developments in the study of optical forces in integrated photonics. Our initial predictions suggested that freely suspended, parallel silicon waveguides should exhibit significant forces due to mode coupling. Symmetric and anti-symmetric modes give rise to attractive and repulsive modes respectively, analogous to bonding and anti-bonding orbitals in solid state physics. Experimental demonstrations of forces in waveguide and microresonator systems rapidly followed. We review recent work on applications of optical forces to on-chip manipulation of light signals.