Optical Trapping and Control of a Dielectric Nanowire by a Nanoaperture

We demonstrate that a single sub-wavelength nanoaperture in a metallic thin film can be used to achieve dynamic optical trapping and control of a single dielectric nanowire. A nanoaperture can trap a nanowire, control its orientation when illuminated by a linearly-polarized incident field, and also rotate the nanowire when illuminated by a circularly-polarized incident field. Compared to other designs, this approach has the advantages of a low-power driving field entailing low heating and photodamage.