Related papers: Transfer of a levitating nanoparticle between opti…
We present an optical nanotrapping setup that exhibits enhanced efficiency, based on localized plasmonic fields around sharp metallic features. The substrates consist of laser-structured silicon wafers with quasi-ordered microspikes on the…
We report dispersive coupling of an optically trapped silica nanoparticle ($143~$nm diameter) to the field of a driven Fabry-Perot cavity in high vacuum ($4.3\times 10^{-6}~$mbar). We demonstrate nanometer-level control in positioning the…
Optical trapping has proven to be a valuable experimental technique for precisely controlling small dielectric objects. However, due to their very nature, conventional optical traps are diffraction limited and require high intensities to…
Quantum computers have the capability of out-performing their classical counterparts for certain computational problems. Several scalable quantum computing architectures have been proposed. An attractive architecture is a large set of…
We experimentally study the interference of dipole scattered light from two optically levitated nanoparticles in vacuum, which present an environment free of particle-substrate interactions. We illuminate the two trapped nanoparticles with…
The coupling of mechanical oscillators with light has seen a recent surge of interest, as recent reviews report.[1, 2] This coupling is enhanced when confining light in an optical cavity where the mechanical oscillator is integrated as…
We study the cooling of a dielectric nanoscale particle trapped in an optical cavity. We derive the frictional force for motion in the cavity field, and show that the cooling rate is proportional to the square of oscillation amplitude and…
A mechanically compliant element can be set into motion by the interaction with light. In turn, this light-driven motion can give rise to ponderomotive correlations in the electromagnetic field. In optomechanical systems, cavities are often…
In recent years, levitated particles of optical traps in vacuum have shown enormous potential in precision sensor development and searching for new physics. The accuracy of the calibration relating the detected signal to absolute…
Optically levitated multiple nanoparticles has emerged as a platform for studying complex fundamental physics such as non-equilibrium phenomena, quantum entanglement, and light-matter interaction, which could be applied for sensing weak…
We describe the design, fabrication, and measurement of a cavity opto-mechanical system consisting of two nanobeams of silicon nitride in the near-field of each other, forming a so-called "zipper" cavity. A photonic crystal patterning is…
We present experimental techniques and results related to the optimization and characterization of our nanofiber-based atom trap [Vetsch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203603 (2010)]. The atoms are confined in an optical lattice which is…
We propose and demonstrate hybrid all-optical switching devices that combine silicon nanocavities and two-dimensional semiconductor material. By exploiting the refractive index modulation caused by photo-induced carriers in the…
The center-of-mass motion of a single optically levitated nanoparticle resembles three uncoupled harmonic oscillators. We show how a suitable modulation of the optical trapping potential can give rise to a coupling between two of these…
Mechanical oscillators based on levitated particles are promising candidates for sensitive detectors and platforms for testing fundamental physics. The targeted quality factors for such oscillators correspond to extremely low damping rates…
In this work, we investigate a tool for hybrid quantum systems that implements a transducer to map small position changes of a micro-mechanical membrane onto the polarization of a laser beam. This is achieved with an interferometric setup…
Motivated by the work of J.K.~Jang et al., Nat.~Commun.~{\bf 6}, 7370 (2015), where the authors experimentally tweeze cavity solitons in a passive loop of optical fiber, we study the amenability to tweezing of cavity solitons as the…
Single atoms movable from one place to another would enable a flying quantum memory that can be used for quantum communication and quantum computing at the same time. Guided atoms, e.g., by optical tweezers, provide a partial solution, but…
In optomechanical systems, the libration and rotation of nanoparticles offer profound insights for ultrasensitive torque measurement and macroscopic quantum superpositions. Achievements include transitioning libration to rotation up to 6…
Levitated optomechanics is an emerging field in quantum science that explores the quantum motion of mesoscopic particles levitated in a vacuum. Expanding this approach to particles with intrinsic quantum defects opens new opportunities for…