Related papers: Universal Vectorial and Ultrasensitive Nanomechani…
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…
Self-assembled nanowire (NW) crystals can be grown into nearly defect-free nanomechanical resonators with exceptional properties, including small motional mass, high resonant frequency, and low dissipation. Furthermore, by virtue of slight…
Nanometer-scale structures with high aspect ratio such as nanowires and nanotubes combine low mechanical dissipation with high resonance frequencies, making them ideal force transducers and scanning probes in applications requiring the…
Cooling down nanomechanical force probes is a generic strategy to enhance their sensitivities through the concomitant reduction of their thermal noise and mechanical damping rates. However, heat conduction mechanisms become less efficient…
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…
Miniaturized mechanical resonators have proven to be excellent force sensors. However, they usually rely on resonant sensing schemes, and their excellent performance cannot be utilized for the detection of static forces. Here, we report on…
Nanomechanical resonator based on levitated particle exhibits unique advantages in the development of ultrasensitive electric field detector. We demonstrate a three-dimensional, high-sensitivity electric field measurement technology using…
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…
Detection of vector magnetic fields at nanoscale dimensions is critical in applications ranging from basic material science, to medical diagnostic. Meanwhile, an all-electric operation is of great significance for achieving a simple and…
Nanomechanical oscillators have been employed as transducers to measure force, mass and charge with high sensitivity. They are also used in opto- or electromechanical experiments with the goal of quantum control and phenomena of mechanical…
Achieving optimal force sensitivity with nanomechanical resonators requires the ability to resolve their thermal vibrations. In two-dimensional resonators, this can be done by measuring the energy they absorb while vibrating in an optical…
Mechanical resonators based on a single carbon nanotube are exceptional sensors of mass and force. The force sensitivity in these ultra-light resonators is often limited by the noise in the detection of the vibrations. Here, we report on an…
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…
Atomic force spectroscopy and microscopy (AFM) are invaluable tools to characterize nanostructures and biological systems. Most experiments, including state-of-the-art images of molecular bonds, are achieved by driving probes at their…
All-dielectric optical nano-resonators, exhibiting exotic near-field distributions upon excitations, have emerged as low-loss, versatile and highly adaptable components in nanophotonic structures for manipulating electromagnetic waves and…
Nanoscale forces play an important role in different scanning probe microscopies, most notably atomic force microscopy (AFM). In contrast, in scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) a light-induced coupled local optical polarization…
Nanowires are perfect transducers for ultra-sensitive detections of force and mass. For small mass sensing, recent advances in detecting more properties than their masses with high sensitivity for absorbed particles onto a nanowire rely on…
Mechanical force is an essential feature for many physical and biological processes.1-12 Remote measurement of mechanical signals with high sensitivity and spatial resolution is needed for diverse applications, including robotics,13…
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.…
The small mass and high coherence of nanomechanical resonators render them the ultimate force probe, with applications ranging from biosensing and magnetic resonance force microscopy, to quantum optomechanics. A notorious challenge in these…