Attractive Optical Forces from Blackbody Radiation

Sonnleitner, Matthias; Ritsch‐Marte, Monika; Ritsch, Helmut

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.111.023601

Cited by 29 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In the microscopic level, this effect can arise from other incoherent electromagnetic emissions, strongly dependent on the shape of the emitting surface. It is also noticeable in [1] the emphasis put on the connection between the geometry of the bodies and the BBF, but the authors did not investigate the possible influences of both the topology and spacetime geometry on that force. In other words, those authors limited themselves to flat geometry with trivial topology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1] show that the BBF depends on both the temperature and the solid angle, which are modified by the spacetime geometry. Therefore this work focus on the effects due to both the spacetime geometry and topology on the BBF.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a recent letter, M. Sonnleitner et al [1] studied counterintuitive forces which arise between a black-body and neutral atoms or molecules -named black-body force (BBF) -due to the energy associated with shifts in the absorption lines of their spectra. These shifts are induced by the so-called dynamical Stark effect, in which the incoherent electromagnetic waves generated from the heated black-body surface disturbs the electronic transitions in the atomic spectrum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dependence of the black-body force on spacetime geometry and topology

Muniz¹,

Alencar²,

Cunha³

et al. 2017

EPL

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In this paper we compute the corrections to the black-body force (BBF) potential due to spacetime geometry and topology. This recently discovered attractive force on neutral atoms is caused by the thermal radiation emitted from black bodies and here we investigate it in relativistic gravitational systems with spherical and cylindrical symmetries. For some astrophysical objects we find that the corrected black-body potential is greater than the flat case, showing that this kind of correction can be quite relevant when curved spaces are considered. Then we consider four cases: The Schwarzschild spacetime, the global monopole, the non-relativistic infinity cylinder and the static cosmic string. For the spherically symmetric case of a massive body, we find that two corrections appear: One due to the gravitational modification of the temperature and the other due to the modification of the solid angle subtended by the atom. We apply the found results to a typical neutron star and to the Sun. For the global monopole, the modification in the black-body potential is of topological nature and it is due to the central solid angle deficit that occurs in the spacetime generated by that object. In the cylindrical case, which is locally flat, no gravitational correction to the temperature exists, as in the global monopole case. However, we find the curious fact that the BBF depends on the topology of the spacetime through the modification of the azimuthal angle and therefore of the solid angle. For the static cosmic string we find that the force is null for the zero thickness case.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dependence of the black-body force on spacetime geometry and topology

Muniz¹,

Alencar²,

Cunha³

et al. 2017

EPL

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“…It is well described by the intensity gradient of blackbody radiation that gives rise to a spatially dependent a.c. Stark shift 1 , similar to the dipole forces induced by lasers in optical tweezers 8 , atom trapping 9 , or coherent manipulation of atoms 10 or of molecular clusters 11 . We expect it to be the dominant force on polarizable objects over a large temperature range 1 and thus important in atom interferometry, nanomechanics or optomechanics 12 . Controlling this force will enable higher precision in atom interferometers, including tests of fundamental physics such as of the equivalence principle [13][14][15] , planned searches for dark matter and dark energy 16 , gravity gradiometry 17,18 , inertial navigation and perhaps even Casimir force measurements and gravitational wave detection 19,20 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our experiment, the Casimir-Polder force is negligible due to the millimetre-scale distance between the atoms and the surface. However, the intensity of blackbody radiation of a finite-sized source body is spatially dependent, and the propagating-mode contribution must be taken into account 1 . This gives rise to a long-range force having the characteristic T 4 scaling of blackbody radiation, which we observe here for the first time.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Attractive force on atoms due to blackbody radiation

Haslinger

Jaffe

et al. 2017

Nature Phys

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Objects at finite temperature emit thermal radiation with an outward energy-momentum flow, which exerts an outward radiation pressure. At room temperature, a caesium atom scatters on average less than one of these blackbody radiation photons every 10 8 years. Thus, it is generally assumed that any scattering force exerted on atoms by such radiation is negligible. However, atoms also interact coherently with the thermal electromagnetic field. In this work, we measure an attractive force induced by blackbody radiation between a caesium atom and a heated, centimetre-sized cylinder, which is orders of magnitude stronger than the outward-directed radiation pressure. Using atom interferometry, we find that this force scales with the fourth power of the cylinder's temperature. The force is in good agreement with that predicted from an a.c. Stark shift gradient of the atomic ground state in the thermal radiation field 1 . This observed force dominates over both gravity and radiation pressure, and does so for a large temperature range. Quantum technology continues to turn formerly unmeasurable effects into technologically important physics. For example, minuscule shifts of atomic energy levels due to room-temperature blackbody radiation have become leading influences in atomic clocks at or beyond the 10 −14 level of accuracy 2 . They have thus become important to precision timekeeping 3 , and for applications such as improving time standards, relativistic geodesy and searches for variations of fundamental constants. Thermal radiation from a heated source should also result in a repulsive radiation pressure on atoms through absorption of photons [4][5][6][7] . However, the scattering rate for room-temperature blackbody radiation is small, leading to only mm s −1 velocity changes in hundreds of thousands of years for the caesium D line, for example. Here, we show that spatially inhomogeneous blackbody radiation produces a much higher acceleration at the μ m s −2 level pointing towards the source, even near room temperature. It is well described by the intensity gradient of blackbody radiation that gives rise to a spatially dependent a.c. . We expect it to be the dominant force on polarizable objects over a large temperature range 1 and thus important in atom interferometry, nanomechanics or optomechanics 12 . Controlling this force will enable higher precision in atom interferometers, including tests of fundamental physics such as of the equivalence principle [13][14][15] , planned searches for dark matter and dark energy 16 , gravity gradiometry 17,18 , inertial navigation and perhaps even Casimir force measurements and gravitational wave detection 19,20 .As shown in Fig. 1, we perform atom interferometry with caesium atoms 21 in an optical cavity to measure the force induced by blackbody radiation. Our setup is similar to the one we used previously 22,23 . Caesium atoms act as matter waves in our experiment. They are laser-cooled to a temperature of about 300 nK and launched upwards into free fall, reaching 3.7 mm into t...

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Attractive Optical Forces from Blackbody Radiation

Cited by 29 publications

References 18 publications

Dependence of the black-body force on spacetime geometry and topology

Dependence of the black-body force on spacetime geometry and topology

Attractive force on atoms due to blackbody radiation

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