Related papers: Optical centrifuge for nanoparticles
We demonstrate experimentally a method of all-optical selective rotational control in gas mixtures. Using an optical centrifuge - an intense laser pulse whose linear polarization rotates at an accelerated rate, we simultaneously excite two…
Advances in optical trapping design principles have led to tremendous progress in manipulating nanoparticles (NPs) with diverse functionalities in different environments using bulky systems. However, efficient control and manipulation of…
Optically-levitated nanoparticles in vacuum offer a pristine platform for high-quality mechanical oscillators, enabling a wide range of precision measurements and quantum technologies. A key performance metric in such systems is the…
We show that circularly polarized light can spin nanotubes with GHz frequencies. In this method, angular moments of infrared photons are resonantly transferred to nanotube phonons and passed to the tube body by "umklapp" scattering. We…
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 show how to entangle the motion of optically levitated nanoparticles in distant optical tweezers. The scheme consists in coupling the inelastically scattered light of each particle into transmission lines and directing it towards the…
We consider a diatomic molecule driven by a linearly polarized laser pulse with a polarization axis rotating with a constant acceleration. This setup is referred to as optical centrifuge, and it is known to lead to high-angular momenta for…
The non-conservative, azimuthal forces associated with inhomogeneous optical-spin angular momentum play a critical role in optical trapping. Intriguingly, birefringent microspheres can be stably levitated and rapidly rotated in circularly…
A nanofiber-based optical tweezer is demonstrated. Trapping is achieved by combining attractive near-field optical gradient forces with repulsive electrostatic forces. Silica-coated Fe$_2$O$_3$ nanospheres of 300 diameter are trapped as…
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…
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…
Optical tweezers have revolutionized particle manipulation at the micro- and nanoscale, playing a critical role in fields such as plasmonics, biophysics, and nanotechnology. While traditional optical trapping methods primarily rely on…
We experimentally demonstrate orbiting of isotropic, dielectric microparticles around an optical nanofiber that guides elliptically polarized fundamental modes. The driving transverse radiation force appears in the evanescent…
We computationally demonstrate a new method for coherently controlling the rotation-axis direction in asymmetric top molecules with an optical centrifuge. Appropriately chosen electric-field strengths and the centrifuge's acceleration rate…
We report a theoretical study of the optical centrifuge acceleration of an asymmetric top molecule interacting with an electric static field by solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation in the rigid rotor approximation. A detailed…
We report the first demonstration that carbon nanotubes can be trapped and manipulated by optical tweezers. This observation is surprising because individual nanotubes are substantially smaller than the wavelength of light, and thus should…
The evanescent field outside an optical nanofiber (ONF) can create optical traps for neutral atoms. We present a non-destructive method to characterize such trapping potentials. An off-resonance linearly polarized probe beam that propagates…
The field of levitodynamics has made significant progress towards controlling and studying the motion of a levitated nanoparticle. Motional control relies on either autonomous feedback via a cavity or measurement-based feedback via external…
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 report a versatile method for executing controllable high-speed rotation of nanowires by AC voltages applied to multiple electrodes. The rotation of the nanowires can be instantly switched on or off with precisely controlled rotation…