Eur. Phys. J. D (2014) 68: 352
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-50692-2

Regular Article

Self-ordering and collective dynamics of transversely illuminated point-scatterers in a 1D trap

Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

^a e-mail: helmut.ritsch@uibk.ac.at

Received: 20 September 2014
Received in final form: 7 October 2014
Published online: 21 November 2014

Abstract

We study point-like polarizable particles confined in a 1D very elongated trap within the evanescent field of an optical nano-fiber or nano-structure. When illuminated transversely by coherent light, collective light scattering into propagating fiber modes induces long-range interactions and eventually crystallization of the particles into regular order. We develop a simple and intuitive scattering-matrix based approach to study these long-range interactions by collective scattering and the resulting light-induced self-ordering. For few particles we derive explicit conditions for self-consistent stable ordering. In the purely dispersive limit with negligible back-scattering, we recover the prediction of an equidistant lattice as previously found for effective dipole-dipole interaction models. We generalize our model to experimentally more realistic configurations including backscattering, absorption and a directional scattering asymmetry. For larger particle ensembles the resulting self-consistent particle-field equations can be numerically solved to study the formation of long-range order and stability limits.