Related papers: Time-of-flight force sensing below the quantum zer…
We experimentally squeeze the thermal motional state of an optically levitated nanosphere, by fast switching between two trapping frequencies. The measured phase space distribution of our particle shows the typical shape of a squeezed…
Oscillators based on levitated particles are promising for the development of ultrasensitive force detectors. The theoretical performance of levitated nanomechanical sensors is usually characterized by the so-called thermal noise limit…
We demonstrate optical squeezing below the shot-noise level generated through the interaction of an optical cavity field with two center-of-mass modes of a levitated nanoparticle, simultaneously cooled to occupation numbers well below…
Quantum metrology enables sensitivity to approach the limits set by fundamental physical laws. Even a single continuous mode offers enhanced precision, with the improvement scaling with its occupation number. Due to their high information…
We revisit the pointer-based measurement concept of von Neumann which allows us to model a quantum counterpart of the classical time-of-flight (ToF) momentum. Our approach is based on the Hamiltonian for a particle interacting with two…
We study the fundamental sensitivity that can be achieved with an ideal optomechanical system in the nonlinear regime for measurements of time-dependent gravitational fields. Using recently developed methods to solve the dynamics of a…
Counterintuitively, experiments show that an electromagnetically levitated particle escapes from its trap when the ambient pressure is reduced below a certain level even if the particle's motion is cooled by a resonator-based or…
We propose to optimally control the harmonic potential of a levitated nanoparticle to quantum delocalize its center-of-mass motional state to a length scale orders of magnitude larger than the quantum zero-point motion. Using a bang-bang…
Optomechanics allows the transduction of weak forces to optical fields, with many efforts approaching the standard quantum limit. We consider force-sensing using a mirror-in-the-middle setup and use two coupled cavity modes originated from…
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…
Gravity is the most familiar force at our natural length scale. However, it is still exotic from the view point of particle physics. The first experimental study of quantum effects under gravity was performed using a cold neutron beam in…
Gravity differs from all other known fundamental forces since it is best described as a curvature of spacetime. For that reason it remains resistant to unifications with quantum theory. Gravitational interaction is fundamentally weak and…
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been constantly supporting nanosciences and nanotechnologies for over 30 years, being present in many fields from condensed matter physics to biology. It enables measuring very weak forces at the nanoscale,…
As a result of the quantum, wave-like nature of the physical world, a harmonic oscillator can never be completely at rest. Even in the quantum ground state, its position will always have fluctuations, called the zero-point motion. Although…
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…
Every massive particle behaves like a wave, according to quantum physics. Yet, this characteristic wave nature has only been observed in double-slit experiments with microscopic systems, such as atoms and molecules. The key aspect is that…
We experimentally study the dynamics and strength of vortices shed from a NACA 0012 wing undergoing sinusoidal pitching in quiescent water. We characterize the temporal evolution of the vortex trajectory and circulation over a range of…
Detection of the weakest forces in nature and the search for new physics are aided by increasingly sensitive measurements of the motion of mechanical oscillators. However, the attainable knowledge of an oscillator's motion is limited by…
Mechanical qubits offer unique advantages over other qubit platforms, primarily in terms of coherence time and possibilities for enhanced sensing applications, but their potential is constrained by the inherently weak nonlinearities and…
Nanomechanical oscillators are at the heart of ultrasensitive detectors of force, mass and motion. As these detectors progress to even better sensitivity, they will encounter measurement limits imposed by the laws of quantum mechanics. For…