Related papers: Stabilizing nanoparticles in the intensity minimum…
Feedback traps are tools for trapping and manipulating single charged objects, such as molecules in solution. An alternative to optical tweezers and other single-molecule techniques, they use feedback to counteract the Brownian motion of a…
Cooling the centre-of-mass motion is an important tool for levitated optomechanical systems, but it is often not clear which method can practically reach lower temperatures for a particular experiment. We directly compare the parametric and…
Levitated nanoparticles in vacuum are prime candidates for generating macroscopic quantum superposition states of massive objects. Most protocols for preparing these states necessitate coherent expansion beyond the scale of the zero-point…
Manipulating the motions of macroscopic objects near their quantum mechanical uncertainties has been desired in diverse fields, including fundamental physics, sensing, and transducers. Despite significant progresses in ground-state cooling…
The manipulation of microparticles using optical forces has led to many applications in the life and physical sciences. To extend optical trapping towards the nano-regime, in this work we demonstrate trapping of single nanoparticles in…
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…
Feedback cooling plays a critical role in stabilizing quantum systems and achieving low temperatures, where a key question is to determine the fundamental thermodynamic limits on cooling performance. We establish a fundamental bound on…
We theoretically show that laser recoil heating in free-space levitated optomechanics can be arbitrarily suppressed by shining squeezed light onto an optically trapped nanoparticle. The presence of squeezing modifies the quantum…
While conventional optical trapping techniques can trap objects with submicron dimensions, the underlying limits imposed by the diffraction of light generally restrict their use to larger or higher refractive index particles. As the index…
We present a hybrid trapping platform that allows us to levitate a charged nanoparticle in high vacuum using either optical fields, radio-frequency fields, or a combination thereof. Our hybrid approach combines an optical dipole trap with a…
We study quantum feedback cooling of atomic motion in an optical cavity as a prototypical nonlinear quantum control problem. We design a feedback algorithm that can cool the atom to the ground state of the optical potential with high…
Achieving quantum-limited motional control of optically trapped particles beyond the sub-micrometer scale is an outstanding problem in levitated optomechanics. A key obstacle is solving the light scattering problem and identifying particle…
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…
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…
The center-of-mass motion of optically trapped dielectric nanoparticles in vacuum is extremely well-decoupled from its environment, making a powerful tool for measurements of feeble sub-attonewton forces. We demonstrate a method to trap and…
We study a nanofabricated silicon rod levitated in an optical trap. By manipulating the polarization of the light we gain full control over the ro-translational dynamics of the rod. We are able to trap both its centre-of-mass and align it…
We report on speeding up equilibrium recovery in the previously unexplored general case of the underdamped regime using an optically levitated particle. We accelerate the convergence towards equilibrium by an order of magnitude compared to…
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…
Accurate delivery of small targets in high vacuum is a pivotal task in many branches of science and technology. Beyond the different strategies developed for atoms, proteins, macroscopic clusters and pellets, the manipulation of neutral…
Optical trapping enables precise control of individual particles of different sizes, such as atoms, molecules, or nanospheres. Optical tweezers provide free-space omnidirectional optical trapping of objects in laboratories around the world.…