Related papers: Extending vacuum trapping to absorbing objects wit…

A tapered optical nanofiber simultaneously used to trap and optically interface of cold atoms through evanescent fields constitutes a new and well controllable hybrid quantum system. The atoms are trapped in two parallel 1D optical lattices…

Contemporary experiments in cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) with gas-phase neutral atoms rely increasingly on laser cooling and optical, magneto-optical or magnetostatic trapping methods to provide atomic localization with…

We propose an optical dipole trap for cold neutral atoms based on the electric field produced from the evanescent fields in a hollow rectangular slot cut through an optical nanofibre. In particular, we discuss the trap performance in…

For several decades, ions have been trapped by radio frequency (RF) and neutral particles by optical fields. We implement the experimental proof-of-principle for trapping an ion in an optical dipole trap. While loading, initialization and…

Hybrid traps for the simultaneous confinement of neutrals and ions have recently emerged as versatile tools for studying interactions between these species at very low temperatures. Such traps rely on the combination of different types of…

Light trapping is a constant pursuit in photonics because of its importance in science and technology. Many mechanisms have been explored, including the use of mirrors made of materials or structures that forbid outgoing waves, and bound…

We perform free-fall experiments with a charge-neutral, optically levitated nanoparticle. This is achieved using an optical tweezer that can be rapidly toggled on and off and vertically displaced, enabling the particle to be released and…

Near-field, radially symmetric optical potentials centred around a levitated nanosphere can be used for sympathetic cooling and for creating a bound nanosphere-atom system analogous to a large molecule. We demonstrate that the long range,…

We demonstrate the in situ detection of cold 87 Rb atoms near a dielectric surface using the absorption of a weak, resonant evanescent wave. We have used this technique in time of flight experiments determining the density of atoms falling…

We calculate the propagator of a particle caught in a Paul trap and subject to the continuous quantum measurement of its position. The probabilities of the measurement outputs, the possible trajectories of the particle, are also found. This…

We analyze evanescent fields of laser written waveguides and show that they can be used to trap atoms close to the surface of an integrated optical atom chip. In contrast to subwavelength nanofibres it is generally not possible to create a…

The radiation pressure of two detuned laser beams can create a stable trap for a suspended cavity mirror; here it is shown that such a configuration entangles the output light fields via interaction with the mirror. Intra-cavity, the…

The superposition of frequency-shifted Laguerre-Gauss modes can produce a rotating saddle-like intensity profile. When spinning fast enough, the optical forces produced by this structured light saddle generate a dynamically stable…

Optical pulling with tractor beams is so far highly dependent on (i) the property of embedding background or the particle itself , (ii) the number of the particles and/or (iii) the manual ramping of beam phase. A necessary theoretical…

This thesis provides an overview of an approach to quantum simulations using magnesium-25 ions stored in a linear Paul trap as the carriers of quantum information. Their quantum state is manipulated and read out using ultraviolet laser…

We demonstrate that a set of microfabricated electrodes can be coupled to a commercial optical tweezers device, implementing a hybrid electro-optical trap with multiple functionalities to manipulate micro/nanoparticles in suspension. Our…

We review the use of laser cooling and trapping for Standard Model tests, focusing on trapping of radioactive isotopes. Experiments with neutral atoms trapped with modern laser cooling techniques are testing several basic predictions of…

We propose a scheme to investigate the nonequilibrium work distribution of a quantum particle under well controlled transformations of the external potential, exploiting the versatility of a single ion in a segmented linear Paul trap. We…

We report an experimental apparatus and technique which simultaneously traps ions and cold atoms with spatial overlap. Such an apparatus is motivated by the study of ion-atom processes at temperatures ranging from hot to ultra-cold. This…

Quantum mechanics (QM) and General relativity (GR), also known as the theory of gravity, are the two pillars of modern physics. A matter-wave interferometer with a massive particle can test numerous fundamental ideas, including the spatial…