The orbital angular momentum density of Bessel beams is calculated explicitly within a rigorous vectorial treatment. This allows us to investigate some aspects that have not been analysed previously, such as the angular momentum content of azimuthally and radially polarized beams. Furthermore, we demonstrate experimentally the mechanical transfer of orbital angular momentum to trapped particles in optical tweezers using a high-order Bessel beam. We set transparent particles of known dimensions into rotation, where the sense of rotation can be reversed by changing the sign of the singularity. Quantitative results are obtained for rotation rates.

doi:10.1088/1464-4266/4/2/373