Related papers: Direct Measurement of Photon Recoil from a Levitat…
A systematic shift of the photon recoil due to the index of refraction of a dilute gas of atoms has been observed. The recoil frequency was determined with a two-pulse light grating interferometer using near-resonant laser light. The…
Light carries momentum which induces on atoms a recoil for each photon absorbed. In vacuum, for a monochromatic beam of frequency $\nu$, the global momentum per photon is bounded by general principles and is smaller than $h \nu/c$ leading…
Tests of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale require extreme control over mechanical motion and its decoherence. Quantum control of mechanical motion has been achieved by engineering the radiation-pressure coupling between a…
In Paris, we are using an atom interferometer to precisely measure the recoil velocity of an atom that absorbs a photon. In order to reach a high sensitivity, many recoils are transferred to atoms using the Bloch oscillations technique. In…
Recoil heating from photon scattering is a fundamental source of decoherence in optical trapping, severely limiting the preparation of nonclassical motional states. In cavity setups in the coherent scattering configuration, a predictive…
The interaction of an object with its surrounding bath can lead to a coupling between the object's internal degrees of freedom and its center-of-mass motion. This coupling is especially important for nanomechanical oscillators, which are…
The accurate measurement of the net charge on a nanoparticle is critical in both the research and application of nanoparticles. Particularly, in the field of precision sensing based on optically levitated nanoparticles, the precise…
We theoretically show that laser recoil heating in free-space levitated optomechanics can be arbitrarily suppressed by shining squeezed light onto an optically trapped nanoparticle. The presence of squeezing modifies the quantum…
According to quantum theory, measurement and backaction are inextricably linked. In optical position measurements, this backaction is known as radiation pressure shot noise. In analogy, a measurement of the orientation of a mechanical rotor…
Quantum measurements of mechanical systems can produce optical squeezing via ponderomotive forces. Its observation requires high environmental isolation and efficient detection, typically achieved by using optical cavities and cryogenic…
Optically measuring in the photon counting regime is a recurrent challenge in modern physics and a guarantee to develop weakly invasive probes. Here we investigate this idea on a hybrid nano-optomechanical system composed of a nanowire…
The ability to trap and to manipulate individual atoms is at the heart of current implementations of quantum simulations, quantum computing, and long-distance quantum communication. Controlling the motion of larger particles opens up yet…
We report the detection of individual nuclear $\alpha$ decays through the mechanical recoil of the entire micron-sized particle in which the decaying nuclei are embedded. Momentum conservation ensures that such measurements are sensitive to…
Micro- and nanoscale optical or microwave cavities are used in a wide range of classical applications and quantum science experiments, ranging from precision measurements, laser technologies to quantum control of mechanical motion. The…
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.…
An atom recoils when it undergoes spontaneous decay. In this paper we present a microscopic calculation of the recoil of a source atom imbedded in a dielectric medium. We find that the source atom recoils with the canonical photon momentum…
We report on direct feedback cooling of single nanoparticles in an optical lattice to near their motional ground state. We find that the laser phase noise triggers severe heating of nanoparticles' motion along the optical lattice. When the…
Thermal photons can provide information on the temperature of the new state of matter created at RHIC. In the p_T region of 1--3 GeV/c thermal photons are expected to be the dominant direct photon source. Therefore, a possible excess…
We report quantum ground state cooling of a levitated nanoparticle in a room temperature environment. Using coherent scattering into an optical cavity we cool the center of mass motion of a $143$ nm diameter silica particle by more than $7$…
We present optical sideband spectroscopy measurements of a mesoscopic mechanical oscillator cooled near its quantum ground state. The mechanical oscillator, corresponding to a 3.99GHz acoustic mode of a patterned silicon nanobeam, is…