Related papers: Sensing Short-Range Forces with a Nanosphere Matte…
Following the first demonstration of a levitated nanosphere cooled to the quantum ground state in 2020 [1], macroscopic quantum sensors are seemingly on the horizon. The nanosphere's large mass as compared to other quantum systems enhances…
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) allows to probe matter at atomic scale by measuring the perturbation of a nanomechanical oscillator induced by near-field interaction forces. The quest to improve sensitivity and resolution of AFM has forced…
Matter-wave interferometers have fundamental applications for gravity experiments such as testing the equivalence principle and the quantum nature of gravity. In addition, matter-wave interferometers can be used as quantum sensors to…
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…
Matter-wave interferometry with nanoparticles will enable the development of quantum sensors capable of probing ultraweak fields with unprecedented applications for fundamental physics. The high sensitivity of such devices however makes…
A high sensitivity force sensor based on dielectric microspheres in vacuum, optically trapped by a single, upward-propagating laser beam, is described. Off-axis parabolic mirrors are used both to focus the 1064~nm trapping beam and to…
This paper demonstrates cooling of the center-of-mass motion of 10 $\mu$m-diameter optically levitated silica spheres to an effective temperature of $50\pm22 \mu$K, achieved by minimizing the technical pointing noise of the trapping laser.…
Optically levitated nanoparticles in vacuum provide a highly sensitive platform for probing weak light-matter interactions. In this work, we present an interference-based method to amplify the optical force exerted by a weak field on a…
Levitated optomechanics is showing potential for precise force measurements. Here, we report a case study, to show experimentally the capacity of such a force sensor. Using an electric field as a tool to detect a Coulomb force applied onto…
A novel method is presented for measuring impulsive forces generated by devices which are fed with medium power microwave signals. The forces are measured with a torsion balance or weighing scale, as usual, but the microwave signal is…
We discuss recent advances towards matter-wave interference experiments with free beams of metallic and dielectric nanoparticles. They require a brilliant source, an efficient detection scheme and a coherent method to divide the de Broglie…
Quantum technology based on cold-atom interferometers is showing great promise for fields such as inertial sensing and fundamental physics. However, the best precision achievable on Earth is limited by the free-fall time of the atoms, and…
We report on the realization of a displacement sensor based on an optical nanofiber. A single gold nano-sphere is deposited on top of a nanofiber and the system is placed within a standing wave which serves as a position ruler. Scattered…
Ultracold atomic gases hold unique promise for space science by capitalizing on quantum advantages and extended freefall, afforded in a microgravity environment, to enable next-generation precision sensors. Atom interferometers are a class…
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…
Remarkable progress can be observed in recent years in the controlled emission, guiding and detection of coherent, free electrons. Those methods were applied in matter wave interferometers leading to high phase sensitivities and novel…
We consider a class of proposed gravitational wave detectors based on multiple atomic interferometers separated by large baselines and referenced by common laser systems. We compute the sensitivity limits of these detectors due to intrinsic…
Laser frequency noise is a dominant noise background for the detection of gravitational waves using long-baseline optical interferometry. Amelioration of this noise requires near simultaneous strain measurements on more than one…
We propose a new method to detect gravitational waves, based on spatial coherence interferometry with stellar light, as opposed to the conventional temporal coherence interferometry with laser sources. The proposed method detects…
We study the possibility of using matter wave interferometry techniques to build a gravitational wave detector. We derive the response function and find that it contains a term proportional to the derivative of the gravitational wave, a…