Related papers: Study of levitating nanoparticles using ultracold …
We propose and theoretically analyze an experiment where displacement sensing of an optically levitated nanoparticle in front of a surface can be used to measure the induced dipole-dipole interaction between the nanoparticle and its thermal…
Condensation and boiling are phase transitions highly relevant to industry, geology or atmospheric science. These phase transitions are initiated by the nucleation of a drop in a supersaturated vapor and of a bubble in an overstretched…
The role of surface collective excitations in the electron relaxation in small metal particles is studied. It is shown that the dynamically screened electron-electron interaction in a nanoparticle contains a size-dependent correction…
The nonlinear optical dynamics of nano-materials comprised of plasmons interacting with quantum emitters is investigated by a self-consistent model based on the coupled Maxwell-Liouville-von Neumann equations. It is shown that ultra-short…
The controllable positioning of a vacuum-levitated object near a material surface is of importance for studying short-range forces, such as Casimir forces, interfacial friction forces, or gravity in yet unexplored parameter regimes. Here we…
Quantum vacuum forces dictate the interaction between individual atoms and dielectric surfaces at nanoscale distances. For example, their large strengths typically overwhelm externally applied forces, which makes it challenging to…
We report on the discovery of a unidirectional continuous orbital motion of a single pair of nanoparticles which occurs spontaneously in room-temperature air and can be manipulated by light. By varying the relative position of two…
A new model that describes adsorption and clustering of particles on a surface is introduced. A {\it clustering} transition is found which separates between a phase of weakly correlated particle distributions and a phase of strongly…
We theoretically study the low-energy scattering of ultracold atoms by a dielectric nanosphere of silica glass levitated in a vacuum. The atom and dielectric surface interact via dispersion force of which strength sensitively depends on the…
Entropic forces in colloidal suspensions and in polymer-colloid systems are of long-standing and continuing interest. Experiments show how entropic forces can be used to control the self-assembly of colloidal particles. Significant advances…
In summer 1999 an experiment at ILL, Grenoble was conducted. So-called ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) were trapped in the vertical direction between the Fermi-potential of a smooth mirror below and the gravitational potential of the earth above…
Transport of microscopic objects across biological membranes usually involves membrane deformation to enclose the object followed by detachment of the engulfed particle. However, in artificial membranes, this last topological remodelling…
We present a numerical and partially analytical study of classical particles obeying a Langevin equation that describes diffusion on a surface modeled by a two dimensional potential. The potential may be either periodic or random. Depending…
Bubble nucleation in liquid confined in nanochannel is studied using molecular dynamics simulations and compared against nucleation in the liquid over smooth (i.e. without confinement). Nucleation is achieved by heating part of a surface to…
A tutorial overview is given on interactions between atoms and surfaces that are mediated by the electromagnetic field. The emphasis is on dispersion (or van der Waals) forces and transitions induced by thermal fluctuations in the near…
The nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) potential is the residual interaction of the strong interaction in the low-energy region and is also the fundamental input to the study of atomic nuclei. Based on the non-perturbative properties of the quantum…
The Casimir--Polder interaction between an anisotropic particle and a surface is orientation dependent. We study novel orientational effects that arise due to curvature of the surface for distances much smaller than the radii of curvature…
Optically levitated multiple nanoparticles has emerged as a platform for studying complex fundamental physics such as non-equilibrium phenomena, quantum entanglement, and light-matter interaction, which could be applied for sensing weak…
Charged (nano)particles confined in electrodynamic traps can evolve into strongly correlated Coulomb systems which are the subject of current investigation. Exciting physical phenomena associated to Coulomb systems are reported such as…
We propose a new method to form very cold neutron (VCN) beams collimated and monochromatic without usual losses of flux by three or more orders in magnitude due to narrow line cutting from energy and angular spectra. To this purpose…