Related papers: Testing collapse models with levitated nanoparticl…
Optical and acoustical trapping has been established as a tool for holding and moving microscopic particles suspended in a liquid in a contact-free and non-invasive manner. Opposed to standard microscopic imaging where the probe is fixated,…
The controllable positioning of a vacuum-levitated object near a material surface is of importance for studying short-range forces, such as Casimir forces, interfacial friction forces, or gravity in yet unexplored parameter regimes. Here we…
Event-based imaging is a neurmorphic detection technique whereby an array of pixels detects a positive or negative change in light intensity at each pixel, and is hence particularly well suited to detecting motion. As compared to standard…
Various techniques are used to detect the presence of charged particles stored in electromagnetic traps, their energy, their mass, or their internal states. Detection methods can rely on the variation of the number of trapped particles…
Levitated nanoparticles in vacuum are prime candidates for generating macroscopic quantum superposition states of massive objects. Most protocols for preparing these states necessitate coherent expansion beyond the scale of the zero-point…
We investigate experimentally the dynamics of a non-spherical levitated nanoparticle in vacuum. In addition to translation and rotation motion, we observe the light torque-induced precession and nutation of the trapped particle. We provide…
Optically trapped Silica nanoparticles are a promising tool for precise sensing of gravitational or inertial forces and fundamental physics, including tests of quantum mechanics at 'large' mass scales. This field, called levitated…
Advances in research such as quantum information and quantum chemistry require subtle methods for trapping particles (including ions, neutral atoms, molecules, etc.). Here we propose a hybrid ion trapping method by combining a Paul trap…
We present a concise outlook on future experimental tests of spontaneous wave function collapse models. We discuss tests based on force noise measurements in ultrasensitive mechanical systems, spontaneous heating in ultracold solid matter…
Methods for controlling the motion of single particles, optically levitated in vacuum, have developed rapidly in recent years. The technique of cold damping makes use of feedback-controlled, electrostatic forces to increase dissipation…
We experimentally demonstrate optical dipole trapping of a cloud of cold atoms by means of a dynamically coupled mode of a high-finesse cavity. We show that the trap requires a collective action of the atoms, i.e. a single atom would not be…
Levitated optomechanics, a rapidly expanding field that employs light to monitor and manipulate the mechanical motion of levitated objects, is increasingly relevant across physics, engineering, and other fields. This technique, which…
Optical levitation of dielectric particles in vacuum is a powerful technique for precision measurements, testing fundamental physics, and quantum information science. Conventional optical tweezers require bulky optical components for…
Many experiments in the field of optical levitation with nanoparticles today are limited by the available technologies for particle loading. Here we introduce a new particle loading method that solves the main challenges, namely…
Trapped ions are among the leading platforms for quantum technologies, particularly in the field of quantum computing. Detecting states of trapped ions is essential for ensuring high-fidelity readouts of quantum states. In this work, we…
Nonclassical optomechanical correlations enable optical control of mechanical motion beyond the limitations of classical driving. Here we investigate the feasibility of using pulsed cavity-optomechanics to create and verify nonclassical…
Accurate delivery of small targets in high vacuum is a pivotal task in many branches of science and technology. Beyond the different strategies developed for atoms, proteins, macroscopic clusters and pellets, the manipulation of neutral…
We demonstrate a technique to estimate the strength of non-linearities present in the trapping potential of an optically levitated nanoparticle. By applying a brief pulsed reduction in trapping laser power of the system such as to squeeze…
We investigate melting and undercooling in nanoscale (radius ~100 nm) gold particles that are levitated in a quadrupole ion (Paul) trap in a high vacuum environment. The particle is heated via laser illumination and probed using two main…
In complex plasmas, the behavior of freely floating micrometer sized particles is studied. The particles can be directly visualized and recorded by digital video cameras. To analyze the dynamics of single particles, reliable algorithms are…