Optical and electrical feedback cooling of a silica nanoparticle levitated in a Paul trap

光悬浮纳米颗粒的质量与形状测定

Mass and Shape Determination of Optically Levitated Nanoparticles

本文结合基于电荷的质量测量、光散射形状测定与阻尼率各向异性分析，首次在真空中利用光镊捕获同一组硅石纳米颗粒，实现了对其质量与形状的同步区分，为精密测量和传感实验奠定基础。

Accurate mass measurement of a levitated nanomechanical resonator for precision force sensing

Nanomechanical resonators are widely operated as force and mass sensors with sensitivities in the zepto-Newton and yocto-gram regime, respectively. Their accuracy, however, is usually undermined by high uncertainties in the effective mass of the system, whose estimation is a non-trivial task. This critical issue can be addressed in levitodynamics, where the nanoresonator typically consists of a single silica nanoparticle of well-defined mass. Yet, current methods assess the mass of the levitated nanoparticles with uncertainties up to a few tens of percent, therefore preventing to achieve unpre…

Search for non-Newtonian interactions at micrometer scale with a levitated test mass

We report on a search for non-Newtonian forces that couple to mass, with a characteristic scale of ${\sim}10~μ$m, using an optically levitated microsphere as a precision force sensor. A silica microsphere trapped in an upward-propagating, single-beam, optical tweezer is utilized to probe for interactions sourced from a nanofabricated attractor mass with a density modulation brought into close proximity to the microsphere and driven along the axis of periodic density in order to excite an oscillating response. We obtain force sensitivity of ${\lesssim}10^{-16}~\rm{N}/\sqrt{\rm{Hz}}$. Separately…

Absolute pressure and gas species identification with an optically levitated rotor

The authors describe a novel variety of spinning-rotor vacuum gauge in which the rotor is a ${\sim}4.7{\text -}μ$m-diameter silica microsphere, optically levitated. A rotating electrostatic field is used to apply torque to the permanent electric dipole moment of the silica microsphere and control its rotational degrees of freedom. When released from a driving field, the microsphere's angular velocity decays exponentially with a damping time inversely proportional to the residual gas pressure, and dependent on gas composition. The gauge is calibrated by measuring the rotor mass with electrostat…

Dry launching of silica nanoparticles in vacuum

Clean loading of silica nanoparticles with a radius as small as ~50 nm is required for experiments in levitated optomechanics that operate in ultra-high vacuum. We present a cheap and simple experimental method for dry launching of silica nanoparticles by shaking from a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) surface. We report on the successful launching of single silica nanoparticles with a minimum radius of 43 nm, which is enabled by the low stiction to the launching surface. Nanoparticles with radii of 43 nm and 71.5 nm are launched with a high flux and small angular spread of $\sim \pm 10^\circ$, …

High sensitivity, levitated microsphere apparatus for short-distance force measurements

A high sensitivity force sensor based on dielectric microspheres in vacuum, optically trapped by a single, upward-propagating laser beam, is described. Off-axis parabolic mirrors are used both to focus the 1064~nm trapping beam and to recollimate it to provide information on the horizontal position of the microsphere. The vertical degree of freedom is readout by forming an interferometer between the light retroreflected by the microsphere and a reference beam, hence eliminating the need for auxiliary beams. The focus of the trapping beam has a 1/e$^2$ radius of 3.2~$μ$m and small non-Gaussian …