Related papers: Backaction suppression in levitated optomechanics …
A two-dimensional periodic optical force field, which combines conservative dipolar forces with vortices from radiation pressure, is proposed in order to influence the diffusion properties of optically susceptible nano-particles. The…
The reflection of an optical wave from a metal, arising from strong interactions between the optical electric field and the free carriers of the metal, is accompanied by a phase reversal of the reflected electric field. A far less common…
An acousto-optic cell was used to reduce the speckle noise that reduces the quality of Hartmann-Shack and other wave-front sensors measuring ocular aberrations. In the method presented here, a laser beam traverses an acousto-optic cell,…
In very intense electromagnetic fields, the vacuum refractive index is expected to be modified due to nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED) properties. Several experimental tests using high intensity lasers have been proposed to observe…
We report the results of a recent search for the lowest value of thermal noise that can be achieved in LIGO by changing the shape of mirrors, while fixing the mirror radius and maintaining a low diffractional loss. The result of this…
Photothermal effects can alter the response of an optical cavity, for example, by inducing self-locking behavior or unstable anomalies. The consequences of these effects are often regarded as parasitic and generally cause limited…
Optically levitated micro- and nanoparticles are an ideal optomechanical platform for precision measurements, particularly enabling the detection of ultraweak forces. Nevertheless, quantum backaction and inherent instabilities induced by…
We study an optomechanical cavity, in which a buckled suspended beam serves as a mirror. The mechanical resonance frequency of the beam obtains a minimum value near the buckling temperature. Contrary to the common case, in which…
Self-focusing of laser beam propagating through a dissipative suspension of metallic nanoparticles is studied. Impact of imaginary part of nanoparticle polarizability on the optical force and consequently on the particles rearrangement in…
The ultimate limits of performance for any classical optical system are set by sub-wavelength fluctuations within the host material, that may be frozen-in or even dynamically induced. The most common manifestation of such sub-wavelength…
The nonlinear quantum interaction of a linearly polarized x-ray probe beam with a focused intense standing laser wave is studied theoretically. Because of the tight focusing of the standing laser pulse, diffraction effects arise for the…
Levitation optomechanics exploits the unique mechanical properties of trapped nano-objects in vacuum in order to address some of the limitations of clamped nanomechanical resonators. In particular, its performance is foreseen to contribute…
We experimentally study an optomechanical cavity that is formed between a mechanical resonator, which serves as a movable mirror, and a stationary on-fiber dielectric mirror. A significant change in the behavior of the system is observed…
The suspension noise in interferometric gravitational wave detectors is caused by losses at the top and the bottom attachments of each suspension fiber. We use the Fluctuation-Dissipation theorem to argue that by careful positioning of the…
Conical refraction occurs when a beam of light travels through an appropriately cut biaxial crystal. By focussing the conically refracted beam through a high numerical aperture microscope objective, conical refraction optical tweezers can…
Decades of work on beam deformation on reflection, and especially on lateral shifts, have spread the idea that a reflected beam is larger than the incident beam. However, when the right conditions are met, a beam reflected by a multilayered…
We present total and specular reflectance measurements of various materials that are commonly (and uncommonly) used to provide baffling and/or to minimize the effect of stray light in optical systems. More specifically, we investigate the…
A laser beam directed at a mirror attached onto a flexible mount extracts thermal energy from its mechanical Brownian motion by Doppler effect. For a normal mirror the efficiency of this Doppler cooling is very weak and masked by laser…
Optical detection back-action in cantilever resonant or static detection presents a challenge when striving for state-of-the-art performance. The origin and possible routes for minimizing optical back-action have received little attention…
We report the observation of imaging beyond the diffraction limit due to bound surface states in negative refraction photonic crystals. We achieve an effective negative index figure-of-merit [-Re(n)/Im(n)] of at least 380, ~125x improvement…