Related papers: High sensitivity, levitated microsphere apparatus …
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…
A nanofiber-based optical tweezer is demonstrated. Trapping is achieved by combining attractive near-field optical gradient forces with repulsive electrostatic forces. Silica-coated Fe$_2$O$_3$ nanospheres of 300 diameter are trapped as…
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel optical method for trapping and cooling dielectric nanospheres at (sub)-micron distances from a reflective metallic surface. By translating a tilted mirror towards the focus of a single-beam…
We demonstrate thermally limited force spectroscopy using a probe formed by a dielectric microsphere optically trapped in water near a dielectric surface. We achieve force resolution below 1 fN in 100 s, corresponding to a 2 {\AA} rms…
A circularly polarized laser beam is used to levitate and control the rotation of microspheres in high vacuum. At low pressure, rotation frequencies as high as 6 MHz are observed for birefringent vaterite spheres, limited by centrifugal…
Using optical tweezers and a haptic device, microspheres having diameters ranging from 3 to 4 um (floating in a fluid solution) are manipulated in order to form patterns of coupled optical microresonators by assembling the spheres via…
A photonic force microscope comprises of an optically trapped micro-probe and a position detection system to track the motion of the probe. Signal collection for motion detection is often carried out using the backscattered light off the…
We describe a novel method to measure the surface charge densities on optical fibers placed in the vicinity of a trapped ion, where the ion itself acts as the probe. Surface charges distort the trapping potential, and when the fibers are…
We describe a method for sensing short range forces using matter wave interference in dielectric nanospheres. When compared with atom interferometers, the larger mass of the nanosphere results in reduced wave packet expansion, enabling…
We demonstrate optical levitation of SiO$_2$ spheres with masses ranging from 0.1 to 30 nanograms. In high vacuum, we observe that the measured acceleration sensitivity improves for larger masses and obtain a sensitivity of $0.4 \times…
We report a weighing metrology experiment of a single silica microsphere optically trapped and immersed in air. Based on fluctuations about thermal equilibrium, three different mass measurements are investigated, each arising from one of…
We report on the fabrication and diffraction-limited characterization of parabolic focusing micromirrors. Sub - micron beam waists are measured for mirrors with 10 {\mu}m radius aperture and measured fixed focal lengths in the range from 24…
In recent years there has been an explosive development of interest in the measurement of forces at the microscopic level, such as within living cells, as well as the properties of fluids and suspensions on this scale, using optically…
The dual-fiber optical trap, owing to its high sensitivity and facile miniaturization, holds significant actual application value in fields such as high-precision metrology of mechanical quantities and biological manipulation. The…
Optical tweezers enable non-contact trapping of micro-scale objects using light. Despite their widespread use, it is currently not known how tightly it is possible to three-dimensionally trap micro-particles with a given photon budget.…
Optical levitation of nanoscale particles has emerged as a platform for precision measurement. Extremely low damping, together with optical interferometric position detection, makes possible exquisite force measurement and promises…
Oscillators based on levitated particles are promising for the development of ultrasensitive force detectors. The theoretical performance of levitated nanomechanical sensors is usually characterized by the so-called thermal noise limit…
The ability to detect extremely small forces is vital for a variety of disciplines including precision spin-resonance imaging, microscopy, and tests of fundamental physical phenomena. Current force-detection sensitivity limits have…
This paper presents a novel multi-axis force-sensing approach in robotic minimally invasive surgery with no modification to the surgical instrument. Thus, it is adaptable to different surgical instruments. A novel 6-axis optical force…
Magnetically levitated superconducting microparticles offer a promising path to quantum experiments with picogram to microgram objects. In this work, we levitate a 700ng $\sim 10^{17}$amu superconducting microsphere in a magnetic chip trap…