Manipulation d'interfaces liquides induite par la pression de radiation

Abstract
Generally very intense fields are needed to bend a liquid interface with the optical radiation pressure. To enhance the coupling, we investigate this effect in a near-critical phase-separated liquid mixture and observe huge stationary deformations at low beam powers by tuning the softness of the meniscus with variations in temperature. This offers us the opportunity to present an universal description of both the bending and the resultant soft lensing. Non-linear behaviours are also presented and applications in optical wave-guiding are anticipated.