Sensing nanometric displacement of a micro-/nano-fiber induced by optical forces by use of white light interferometry

Sensing the nanometric displacement of a micro-/nano-fiber induced by optical forces is a key technology to study optical forces and optical momentum. When the gap between a micro-/nano-fiber and glass substrate becomes down to micrometer scale or less, a white light interference was observed. The gap changes when optical force arising from the propagating pump light along the micro-/nano-fiber causes a transversal nanometric displacement of a micro-/nanofiber, resulting in movement of the interferometric fringes. Therefore this movement of the interferometric fringes can be used to sense the nanometric displacement of the micro-/nano-fiber induced by optical forces. Experimental results show that the resolutions of this method can reach 7.27nm/pixel for tilted angle 0.8 o between the micro-/nano-fiber and substrate. It is concluded that the white light interferometry method is suitable for measuring the weak optical force.