Trapping and binding of an arbitrary number of cylindrical particles in an in-plane electromagnetic field

The Mie theory and the Foldy-Lax multiple-scattering equations are applied to compute the scattered field of an arbitrary number of infinite dielectric cylinders of arbitrary size, subject to in-plane incidences. The Maxwell stress tensor is then used to compute the force on each cylinder. Trapping and binding forces are studied as a function of particle size, number, permittivity, and separation. Finally, the formulation is applied to a system of 20 particles, and the results show clear similarities with known experimental reports. The formulation presented here extends the capabilities of modeling particle interaction and optical matter beyond the simple cases of the Rayleigh regime and two-particle systems.