Tailoring Optical Forces Behavior in Nano-optomechanical Devices Immersed in Fluid Media

Emerging nano-optofluidic devices have allowed a synergetic relation between photonic integrated circuits and microfluidics, allowing manipulation and transport at the realm of nanoscale science. Simultaneously, optical gradient forces have allowed highly precise control of mechanical motion in nano-optomechanical devices. In this report, we show that the repulsive optical forces of the antisymmetric eigenmodes in an optomechanical device, based on a slot-waveguide structure, increases as the refraction index of the fluid medium increases. This effect provides a feasible way to tailor the repulsive optical forces when these nano-optomechanical devices are immersed in dielectric liquids. Furthermore, the total control of the attractive and repulsive optical forces inside liquids may be applied to design novel nanophotonic devices, containing both microfluidic and nanomechanical functionalities, which may find useful applications in several areas, such as biomedical sensors, manipulators and sorters, amongst others.