Related papers: Thermal nonlinearities in a nanomechanical oscilla…
We report the observation of discrete displacement of nanomechanical oscillators with gigahertz-range resonance frequencies at millikelvin temperatures. The oscillators are nanomachined single-crystal structures of silicon, designed to…
Preparing and manipulating quantum states of mechanical resonators is a highly interdisciplinary undertaking that now receives enormous interest for its far-reaching potential in fundamental and applied science. Up to now, only nanoscale…
We report low-temperature measurements of dissipation in megahertz-range, suspended, single-crystal nanomechanical oscillators. At millikelvin temperatures, both dissipation (inverse quality factor) and shift in the resonance frequency…
Manipulating the motions of macroscopic objects near their quantum mechanical uncertainties has been desired in diverse fields, including fundamental physics, sensing, and transducers. Despite significant progresses in ground-state cooling…
Torque sensors such as the torsion balance enabled the first determination of the gravitational constant by Cavendish and the discovery of Coulomb's law. Torque sensors are also widely used in studying small-scale magnetism, the Casimir…
High-stress Si$_3$N$_4$ nanoresonators have become an attractive choice for electro- and optomechanical devices. Membrane resonators can achieve quality factor ($Q$) - frequency ($f$) products exceeding $10^{13}$ Hz, enabling (in principle)…
The ultimate sensitivities achieved in force or mass sensing are limited by the employed nanomechanical probes thermal noise. Its proper understanding is critical for ultimate operation and any deviation from the underlying fluctuation…
The thermal Casimir effect, arising from fluctuating electromagnetic fields of thermally agitated charges, induces thermosensitive forces and presents a novel approach to detecting nanoscale hot electrons, elusive yet ubiquitous in modern…
Optically trapped nanospheres in high-vaccum experience little friction and hence are promising for ultra-sensitive force detection. Here we demonstrate measurement times exceeding $10^5$ seconds and zeptonewton force sensitivity with…
We measure the response and thermal motion of a high-Q nanomechanical oscillator coupled to a superconducting microwave cavity in the resolved-sideband regime where the oscillator's resonance frequency exceeds the cavity's linewidth. The…
In real-time quantum feedback protocols, the record of a continuous measurement is used to stabilize a desired quantum state. Recent years have seen highly successful applications in a variety of well-isolated micro-systems, including…
Mechanical transduction of torque has been key to probing a number of physical phenomena, such as gravity, the angular momentum of light, the Casimir effect, magnetism, and quantum oscillations. Following similar trends as mass and force…
The sensitivity of a mechanical transducer is ultimately limited by its inherent quantum fluctuations. Here, we use an optically levitated nanoparticle to measure impulsive forces smaller than the particle's zero-point momentum uncertainty.…
All quantum optomechanics experiments to date operate at cryogenic temperatures, imposing severe technical challenges and fundamental constraints. Here we present a novel design of on-chip mechanical resonators which exhibit fundamental…
Nanomechanical resonators promise diverse applications ranging from mass spectrometry to quantum information processing, requiring long phonon lifetimes and frequency stability. Although two-level system (TLS) defects govern dissipation at…
Squeezing the quadrature noise of a harmonic oscillator used as a sensor can enhance its sensitivity in certain measurment schemes. The canonical approach, based on parametric modulation of the oscillation frequency, is usually limited to a…
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…
A model for the cooling properties of a nanocantilever by a free electron beam is presented for a capacitive interaction. The optimal parameters for position sensing and cooling applications are estimated from previous experimental…
We consider frequency fluctuations in self-sustained oscillators based on nonlinear underdamped resonators. An important type of such resonators are nano- and micro-electro-mechanical systems. Various noise sources are considered, with the…
Advances in nano-fabrication techniques has made it feasible to observe damping phenomena beyond the linear regime in nano-mechanical systems. In this work, we report cubic non-linear damping in palladium nano-mechanical resonators.…