Related papers: Short-range force detection using optically-cooled…
Sensing weak forces through observing a mechanical motion near or below its quantum zero-point fluctuation has been desired in diverse areas. While mechanical oscillators have played a crucial role in such studies, their application to…
Particles with electric charge 10^(-12)e in bulk mass are not excluded by present experiments. In the present letter we provide a feasible scheme to measure the millicharged particles via the optical cavity coupled to a levitated…
The development of levitated optomechanics has enabled precise force sensors that operate in the quantum measurement regime, opening up unique opportunities to search for new physics whose weak interactions may have evaded existing sensors.…
Since the advent of atomic force microscopy, mechanical resonators have been used to study a wide variety of phenomena, such as the dynamics of individual electron spins, persistent currents in normal metal rings, and the Casimir force. Key…
While conventional optical trapping techniques can trap objects with submicron dimensions, the underlying limits imposed by the diffraction of light generally restrict their use to larger or higher refractive index particles. As the index…
Optical detection of structures with dimensions smaller than an optical wavelength requires devices that work on scales beyond the diffraction limit. Here we present the possibility of using a tapered optical nanofiber as a detector to…
We demonstrate levitation and three-dimensionally stable trapping of a wide variety of particles in a vacuum chamber through the use of the thermophoretic force in the presence of a strong temperature gradient. Typical sizes of the trapped…
We report on the use of an ultracold ensemble of $^{87}$Rb atoms trapped in a vertical lattice as a source for a quantum force sensor based on a Ramsey-Raman type interferometer. We reach spatial resolution in the low micrometer range in…
We describe a novel method to measure the surface charge densities on optical fibers placed in the vicinity of a trapped ion, where the ion itself acts as the probe. Surface charges distort the trapping potential, and when the fibers are…
The MICROSCOPE experiment was designed to test the weak equivalence principle in space, by comparing the low-frequency dynamics of cylindrical "free-falling" test masses controlled by electrostatic forces. We use data taken during technical…
Casimir forces are of fundamental interest because they originate from quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. Apart from controlling the Casimir force via the optical properties of the materials, a number of novel geometries…
Using light as a probe to detect a mechanical motion is one of the most successful experimental approaches in physics. The history of mechanical sensing based on the reflection, refraction and scattering of light dates back to the 16th…
Despite being the dominant force of nature on large scales, gravity remains relatively elusive to experimental measurement. Many questions remain, such as its behavior at small scales or its role in phenomena ascribed to dark matter and…
Optically trapped nanoparticles have recently emerged as exciting candidates for tests of quantum mechanics at the macroscale and as versatile platforms for ultrasensitive metrology. Recent experiments have demonstrated parametric feedback…
Optical microtraps provide a strong spatial confinement for laser-cooled atoms. They can, e.g., be realized with strongly focused trapping light beams or the optical near fields of nano-scale waveguides and photonic nanostructures. Atoms in…
Oscillators based on levitated particles are promising for the development of ultrasensitive force detectors. The theoretical performance of levitated nanomechanical sensors is usually characterized by the so-called thermal noise limit…
We demonstrate optical levitation of SiO$_2$ spheres with masses ranging from 0.1 to 30 nanograms. In high vacuum, we observe that the measured acceleration sensitivity improves for larger masses and obtain a sensitivity of $0.4 \times…
We report on measurements of the Casimir force in a sphere-plane geometry using a cryogenic force microscope to move the force probe in situ over different materials. We show how the electrostatic environment of the interacting surfaces…
We obtain constraints on non-Newtonian gravity following from the improved precision measurement of the Casimir force by means of atomic force microscope. The hypothetical force is calculated in experimental configuration (a sphere above a…
In a canonical optomechanical system, mechanical vibrations are dynamically encoded on an optical probe field which reciprocally exerts a backaction force. Due to the weak single photon coupling strength achieved with macroscopic…