Reversal and tunability of the surface plasmon enhanced optical forces on a nanorod pair in the presence of a dielectric interlayer

We investigate numerically the modification of surface-plasmon assisted optical force on a gold nanorod pair by incorporating dielectric interlayer. The frequency dependent electromagnetic forces are obtained through full-vectorial solution of Maxwell equations with a finite element solver. We obtain the common and relative electromagnetic force experienced by the nanorods with dielectric interlayers of different permittivity or thickness. In particular, we demonstrate that the use of a liquid crystal interlayer can be utilized as a dynamic tuning mechanism for the reversal of the direction of the relative force.