Potential measurement of evanescent-field-induced radiation pressure

Summary form only given. It has been reported that microparticles could be driven and aligned by an evanescent field induced at solid-liquid interfaces, based on radiation pressure caused by photon momentum transfer from the localized optical field to the particles. For its applications to micromanipulation and micropatterning of particles, it is indispensable to quantitatively measure the strength and potential energy of the evanescent-field-induced radiation pressure. In this paper, we describe the direct observation of three-dimensional interaction potential between a single particle and the localized optical field. A microparticle was irradiated with the evanescent field of a Nd:YAG laser.