Conservation Laws and Electromagnetic Interactions

Aside from energy, light carries linear and angular momenta that can be transferred to matter. The interaction between light and matter is governed by conservation laws that can manifest themselves as mechanical effects acting on both matter and light waves. This interaction permits remote, precise, and noninvasive manipulation and sensing at microscopic levels. In this dissertation, we demonstrated for the first time a complete set of opto-mechanical effects that are based on nonconservative forces and act at the interface between dielectric media. Without structuring the light field, forward action is provided by the conventional radiation pressure while a backward movement can be achieved through the natural enhancement of linear momentum. If the symmetry of scattered field is broken, a side motion can also be induced due to the transformation between spin and orbital angular momenta. In experiments, these opto-mechanical effects can be significantly amplified by the long-range hydrodynamic interactions that provide an efficient recycling of energy. These unusual opto-mechanical effects open new possibilities for efficient manipulation of colloidal microparticles without having to rely on intricate structuring or shaping of light beams. Optically-controlled transport of matter is sought after in diverse applications in biology, colloidal physics, chemistry, condensed matter and others. Another consequence of light-matter interaction is the modification of the optical field itself, which can manifest, for instance, as detectable shifts of the centroids of optical beams during reflection and refraction. The spin-Hall effect of light (SHEL) is one type of such beam shifts that is due to the spin-orbit transformation governed by the conservation of angular momentum. We have shown that this effect can be amplified by the structural anisotropy of random nanocomposite materials