| abstract |
There is disclosed a variety of apparatuses for controlling by radiation pressure the motion of a particle free to move with respect to its environment, based on the discovery that one or more beams of coherent optical radiation can overpower gravity and thermally induced reaction (photophoresis) forces on a small particle. The disclosed results of the effect of the radiation pressure on the motion of the particle include controllably heating the particle to provide a black-body point light source, bombardment of a sample target with small particles, very highenergy particle acceleration, strong-focusing acceleration of a neutral particle, vacuum deposition of thin films from ultrapure particles controllably vaporized while held by radiation pressure, tensile-strength testing of materials based on the radiation-pressure effect of circularly polarized light, and acceleration measurement for inertial guidance and measurement of very low gas pressures. |