Cooling and manipulation of nanoparticles in high vacuum

Author(s)
J. Millen, S. Kuhn, F. Patolsky, A. Kosloff, M. Arndt
Abstract

Optomechanical systems, where the mechanical motion of objects is measured and controlled using light, have a huge range of applications, from the metre-scale mirrors of LIGO which detect gravitational waves, to micron scale superconducting systems that can transduce quantum signals. A fascinating addition to this field are free or levitated optomechanical systems, where the oscillator is not physically tethered. We study a variety of nanoparticles which are launched through vacuum (10(-8) mbar) and interact with an optical cavity. The centre of mass motion of a nanoparticle can be cooled by the optical cavity field. It is predicted that the quantum ground state of motion can be reached, leaving the particle free to evolve after release from the light field, thus preparing nanoscale matter for quantum interference experiments.

Organisation(s)
Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
External organisation(s)
Tel Aviv University
No. of pages
8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2238753
Publication date
2016
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103021 Optics, 210006 Nanotechnology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics, Applied Mathematics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Science Applications
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/cdc8c286-addb-4cdc-a53c-f30c70d16ad8