Scanning force sensing at $\mu$m-distances from a conductive surface with nanospheres in an optical lattice
Abstract
The center-of-mass motion of optically trapped dielectric nanoparticles in vacuum is extremely well-decoupled from its environment, making a powerful tool for measurements of feeble sub-attonewton forces. We demonstrate a method to trap and manuever nanoparticles in an optical standing wave potential formed by retro-reflecting a laser beam from a metallic mirror surface. We can reliably position a nm diameter silica nanoparticle at distances of a few hundred nanometers to tens of microns from the surface of a gold-coated silicon mirror by transferring it from a single-beam tweezer trap into the standing wave potential. We can further scan the two dimensional space parallel to the mirror surface by using a piezo-driven mirror. This method enables three-dimensional scanning force sensing near surfaces using optically trapped nanoparticles, promising for high-sensitivity scanning force microscopy, tests of the Casimir effect, and tests of the gravitational inverse square law at micron scales.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2103.03420,
title = {Scanning force sensing at $\mu$m-distances from a conductive surface with nanospheres in an optical lattice},
author = {Cris Montoya and Eduardo Alejandro and William Eom and Daniel Grass and Nicolas Clarisse and Apryl Witherspoon and Andrew A. Geraci},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.03420},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
6 pages, 3 figures