Creating stable trapping force and switchable optical torque with tunable phase of light

Light-induced rotation of microscopic objects is of general interest as the objects may serve as micromotors. Such rotation can be driven by the angular momentum of light or recoil forces arising from special light-matter interactions. However, in the absence of intensity gradient, simultaneously controlling the position and switching the rotation direction is challenging. Here, we report stable optical trapping and switchable optical rotation of nanoparticle (NP)–assembled micromotors with programmed phase of light. We imprint customized phase gradients into a circularly polarized flat-top (i.e., no intensity gradient) laser beam to trap and assemble metal NPs into reconfigurable clusters. Modulating the phase gradients allows direction-switchable and magnitude-tunable optical torque in the same cluster under fixed laser wavelength and handedness. This work provides a valuable method to achieve reversible optical torque in micro/nanomotors, and new insights for optical trapping and manipulation using the phase gradient of a spatially extended light field.