Surface phonon-polariton enhanced optical forces in silicon carbide nanostructures

The enhanced optical forces induced by surface phonon-polariton (SPhP) modes are investigated in different silicon carbide (SiC) nanostructures. Specifically, we calculate optical forces using the Maxwell stress tensor for three different geometries: spherical particles, slab waveguides, and rectangular waveguides. We show that SPhP modes in SiC can produce very large forces, more than one order of magnitude larger than the surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) forces in analogous metal nanostructures. The material and geometric basis for these large optical forces are examined in terms of dispersive permittivity, separation distance, and operating wavelength.