Related papers: Investigating and Controlling the Libration and Ro…
We demonstrate time-of-flight measurements for an ultracold levitated nanoparticle and reveal its velocity for the translational motion brought to the quantum ground state. We discover that the velocity distributions obtained with repeated…
An optically levitated nanoparticle in vacuum is a paradigm optomechanical system for sensing and studying macroscopic quantum mechanics. While its center-of-mass motion has been investigated intensively, its torsional vibration has only…
We systematically investigate the bistable behavior and squeezing property of the librational mode of a levitated nonspherical nanoparticle trapped by laser beams. By expanding the librational potential to the forth order of the librational…
An optically levitated nonspherical nanoparticle can exhibit both librational and translational vibrations due to orientational and translational confinements of the optical tweezer, respectively. Usually, the frequency of its librational…
Rotations of microscale rigid bodies exhibit pronounced quantum phenomena that do not exist for their center-of-mass motion. By levitating nanoparticles in ultra-high vacuum, researchers are developing a promising platform for observing and…
Librational motion, whereby a rigid body undergoes angular oscillation around a preferred direction, can be observed in optically trapped, silica microspheres. We demonstrate the cooling of one librational degree of freedom for $\sim…
Manipulating mega biomolecules and micro-devices with light is highly appealing. Opto driving torque can propel micro-rotors to translational motion in viscous liquid, and then separate microsystems according to their handedness. We study…
Levitated optomechanics has great potentials in precision measurements, thermodynamics, macroscopic quantum mechanics and quantum sensing. Here we synthesize and optically levitate silica nanodumbbells in high vacuum. With a linearly…
Light-induced rotation of absorbing microscopic particles by transfer of angular momentum from light to the material raises the possibility of optically driven micromachines. The phenomenon has been observed using elliptically polarized…
Optically levitated nonspherical particles in vacuum are excellent candidates for torque sensing, rotational quantum mechanics, high-frequency gravitational wave detection, and multiple other applications. Many potential applications, such…
The field of levitodynamics has made substantial advancements in manipulating the translational and rotational degrees of freedom of levitated nanoparticles. Notably, rotational degrees of freedom can now be cooled to millikelvin…
Control of the potential energy and free evolution lie at the heart of levitodynamics as key requirements for sensing, wave function expansion, and mechanical squeezing protocols. Here, we experimentally demonstrate full control over the…
Optomechanics is concerned with the use of light to control mechanical objects. As a field, it has been hugely successful in the production of precise and novel sensors, the development of low-dissipation nanomechanical devices, and the…
Controlling the motion of nanoscale objects at the quantum limit promises new tests of quantum mechanics and advanced sensors. Rotational motion is of particular interest, as it follows nonlinear dynamics in a compact, closed configuration…
We report three orders of magnitude optical cooling of the fundamental torsional mode of a 5 mm-long, 550 nm diameter optical nanofiber. The rotation of the nanofiber couples to the polarization of guided laser fields. We use a weak laser…
We present a practical and computationally effective Ito-Taylor expansion based stochastic simulation framework for modeling rotational optomechanics experiments. By developing a model using this framework, we could capture the nonlinear…
We systematically investigate the multi-stability behaviour and cooling of both librational and translational modes of an optically levitated nonspherical nanoparticle. By expanding the trapping potential to the fourth order of both the…
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 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…
Torque sensors such as the torsion balance enabled the first determination of the gravitational constant by Cavendish and the discovery of Coulomb's law. Torque sensors are also widely used in studying small-scale magnetism, the Casimir…