Related papers: Nanoparticle detection in an open-access silicon m…
The unique optical properties of two-dimensional layered materials are attractive for achieving increased functionality in integrated photonics. Owing to the van der Waals nature, these materials are ideal for integrating with nanoscale…
Optomechanical coupling between a light field and the motion of a cavity mirror via radiation pressure plays an important role for the exploration of macroscopic quantum physics and for the detection of gravitational waves (GWs). It has…
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 $7$…
Artificial nanostructures with ultrafine and deep-subwavelength feature sizes have emerged as a paradigm-shifting platform to advanced light field management, becoming a key building block for high-performance integrated optoelectronics and…
We consider using optomechanical accelerometers as resonant detectors for ultralight dark matter. As a concrete example, we describe a detector based on a silicon nitride membrane fixed to a beryllium mirror, forming an optical cavity. The…
With a highly coherent, optically addressable electron spin, the nitrogen vacancy (NV) centre in diamond is a promising candidate for a node in a quantum network. However, the NV centre is a poor source of coherent single photons owing to a…
Spherical silicon nanoparticles with sizes of a few hundreds of nanometers represent a unique optical system. According to theoretical predictions based on Mie theory they can exhibit strong magnetic resonances in the visible spectral…
A levitated non-spherical nanoparticle in a vacuum is ideal for studying quantum rotations and is an extremely sensitive torque and force detector. It has been proposed to probe fundamental particle-surface interactions such as the Casimir…
Astrophysical observations suggest the existence of an unknown kind of matter in the Universe, in the frame of the $\Lambda$CDM model. The research field of dark matter covers an energy scale going from massive objects to ultra-light scalar…
We demonstrate laser-written concave hemispherical structures produced on the endfacets of optical fibers that serve as mirror substrates for tunable open-access microcavities. We achieve finesse values of up to 250, and a mostly constant…
We study the effect of finite size and misalignment on a fundamental optomechanical setup: a Fabry-P\'erot cavity with one fixed and one moveable mirror. We describe in detail light confinement under these real world imperfections and…
We review recent works on optomechanics of optically trapped microspheres and nanoparticles in vacuum, which provide an ideal system for studying macroscopic quantum mechanics and ultrasensitive force detection. An optically trapped…
We measure the fluorescence spectrum of broadband emitters in an open optical microcavity with radius of curvature R = 17.7(3) um and finesse F ~= 1000. This geometry enables a combined measurement of emission spectra versus cavity length,…
We theoretically show that the dipole force of an ensemble of quantum emitters embedded in a dielectric nanosphere can be exploited to achieve near-field optical levitation. The key ingredient is that the polarizability from the ensemble of…
We present a novel design of optical micro-cavity where the optical energy resides primarily in free space, therefore is readily accessible to foreign objects such as atoms, molecules, mechanical resonators, etc. We describe the physics of…
We introduce a passively-aligned, flexure-tuned cavity optomechanical system in which a membrane is positioned microns from one end mirror of a Fabry-Perot optical cavity. By displacing the membrane through gentle flexure of its silicon…
Optical nanofibers confine light to subwavelength scales, and are of interest for the design, integration, and interconnection of nanophotonic devices. Here we demonstrate high transmission (> 97%) of the first family of excited modes…
Laser cutting of semiconductor wafers and transparent dielectrics has become a dominant process in manufacturing industries, encompassing a wide range of applications from flat display panels to microelectronic chips. Limited by the…
We show that the output mode of a single-mode optical fiber can be directly focused to a sub-wavelength waist with a finite working distance by tapering the fiber to a diameter of the order of the wavelength and terminating it with a…
We describe the design, fabrication, and characterization of a one-dimensional silicon photonic crystal cavity in which a central slot is used to enhance the overlap between highly localized optical and mechanical modes. The optical mode…