Particle levitation and guidance in hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

We report the guidance of dry micron-sized dielectric particles in hollow core photonic crystal fiber. The particles were levitated in air and then coupled to the air-core of the fiber using an Argon ion laser beam operating at a wavelength of 514 nm, The diameter of the hollow core of the fiber is 20 mum. A laser power of 80 mW was sufficient to levitate a 5 mum diameter polystyrene sphere and guide it through a similar to150 nun long hollow-core crystal photonic fiber. The speed of the guided particle was measured to be around 1 cm/s. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.