Optical interferometric readout of a magnetically levitated superconducting microsphere
- Author(s)
- Jannek J. Hansen, Stefan Minniberger, Dominik Ilk, Peter Asenbaum, Gerard Higgins, Rhys G. Povey, Philip Schmidt, Joachim Hofer, Rémi Claessen, Markus Aspelmeyer, Michael Trupke
- Abstract
We probe the motion of a 6-μg magnetically levitated superconducting microsphere using optical interferometry at 3 K, achieving a resolution of the order of 1 nm/√Hz, and use the measured signal to feedback-cool its motion. The resolution exceeds the shot-noise limit of 11 pm/√Hz primarily due to technical noise arising from the roughness of the particle, in combination with its free rotation. These measurements demonstrate that the combination of interferometric optical readout and superconducting magnetic levitation, together with established techniques of cavity optomechanics, provides all the ingredients required for quantum physics experiments with microgram masses.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), University of Vienna
- Journal
- Physical review applied
- Volume
- 25
- No. of pages
- 15
- ISSN
- 2331-7019
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.11731
- Publication date
- 04-2026
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103026 Quantum optics
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/823a5f7c-27e6-44fb-a247-57dfcb78aa68