Enhanced Transverse Optical Force Between Paired Graphene Nanoribbons

We present a study of transverse optical forces arising in a free-standing graphene nanoribbon pair. The force is evaluated using a numerical procedure based on finite difference time domain simulations. We find that optical forces on the order of nN · μm
^-1
·mW
^-1
can be obtained in both vertically and horizontally aligned ribbon pair. The influence of graphene loss on the total optical force obtainable is also investigated in this paper. Numerical results show that we can get greater transverse optical force in a shorter actuation distance, considerably promising for nano-optomechanical applications.