Graded-index optical fiber tweezers with long manipulation length

Long manipulation length is critical for optical fiber tweezers to enhance the flexibility of non-contact trapping. In this paper a long manipulation distance of more than 40 μm is demonstrated experimentally by the graded-index fiber (GIF) tweezers, which is fabricated by chemically etching a GIF taper with a large cone angle of 58°. The long manipulation distance is obtained by introducing an air cavity between the lead-in single mode fiber and the GIF as well as by adjusting the laser power in the existence of a constant background flow. The influence of the cavity length and the GIF length on the light distribution and the focusing length of the GIF taper is investigated numerically, which is helpful for optimizing the parameters to perform stable optical trapping. This kind of optical fiber tweezers has advantages including low-cost, easy-to-fabricate and easy-to-use.