Direct measurement of the electrostatic image force of a levitated charged nanoparticle close to a surface

Winstone, George; Bennett, Robert; Rademacher, Markus; Rashid, Muddassar; Buhmann, Stefan Yoshi

doi:10.1103/physreva.98.053831

Cited by 38 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…A natural solution to avoid such losses is to levitate the resonator. Indeed, optically levitated dielectric particles [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] have shown high quality factors, with force sensitivities of ∼ 10 −20 N/ √ Hz achieved 21,22 and short range interactions between dielectric surfaces and the particle investigated 23,24 . For acceleration measurements, the best performances are obtained with massive systems; impressive sensitivities of < 10 −15 g/ √ Hz in the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment 25 have been demonstrated.…”

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confidence: 99%

Acceleration sensing with magnetically levitated oscillators above a superconductor

Timberlake

Gasbarri

Vinante

et al. 2019

Applied Physics Letters

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We experimentally demonstrate stable trapping of a permanent magnet sphere above a lead superconductor, in vacuum pressures of 4 × 10 −8 mbar. The levitating magnet behaves as a harmonic oscillator, with frequencies in the 4-31 Hz range detected, and shows promise to be an ultrasensitive acceleration sensor. We directly apply an acceleration to the magnet with a current carrying wire, which we use to measure a background noise of ∼ 10 −10 m/ √ Hz at 30.75 Hz frequency. With current experimental parameters, we find an acceleration sensitivity of S 1/2 a = 1.2 ± 0.2 × 10 −10 g/ √ Hz, for a thermal noise limited system. By considering a 300 mK environment, at a background helium pressure of 1 × 10 −10 mbar, acceleration sensitivities of S 1/2 a ∼ 3 × 10 −15 g/ √ Hz could be possible with ideal conditions and vibration isolation. To feasibly measure with such a sensitivity, feedback cooling must be implemented.The ability to detect extremely small forces and accelerations has a diverse range of applications within science and technology, including uses in magnetic resonance force microscopy 1-3 , detection of gravitational waves 4 , measuring short range Casimir forces 5 , gravimetry 6 and measuring gravitational fields of small source masses 7 . Such systems could also be utilized to test fundamental physics, such as testing collapse models which predict extensions to standard quantum mechanics 8,9 , as well as searching for non-Newtonian corrections to our understanding of gravity 10 . State-of-the-art force sensors, based on clamped mechanical resonators, have reached force sensitivities of ∼ 10 −21 N/ √ Hz 11 in cryogenic environments and ∼ 10 −17 N/ √ Hz 12,13 at room temperature. These mechanical resonators are limited in their sensitivity due to the dissipation to the clamping losses. A natural solution to avoid such losses is to levitate the resonator. Indeed, optically levitated dielectric particles 14-20 have shown high quality factors, with force sensitivities of ∼ 10 −20 N/ √ Hz achieved 21,22 and short range interactions between dielectric surfaces and the particle investigated 23,24 . For acceleration measurements, the best performances are obtained with massive systems; impressive sensitivities of < 10 −15 g/ √ Hz in the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment 25 have been demonstrated. For commercial uses, superconducting gravimeters, which levitate a centimeter sized type-II superconductor, have achieved acceleration sensitivities of ∼ 10 −10 g/ √ Hz 26 . In principle, magnetically levitated oscillators could provide the most environmentally isolated oscillators; the trapping mechanism is passive, whereas other levitation systems require active fields which limit the Qfactor and the temperature attainable 27 . Due to this promise, magnetically levitated oscillators have been proa) Electronic posed as a route to observing macroscopic superposition states 28-31 , as well as for force and inertial sensing 32 , magnetometry 33 and gravimetry 31 . Experimentally, diamagnetic microparticles have been levitate...

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confidence: 99%

Acceleration sensing with magnetically levitated oscillators above a superconductor

Timberlake

Gasbarri

Vinante

et al. 2019

Applied Physics Letters

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“…Diehl et al trapped and feedback-cooled a silica nanoparticle within 380 nm of a SiN membrane [79], and Winstone et al optically trapped a charged silica particle 4 µm from a SiO 2 -coated Si wafer [80]. Both teams were able to reconstruct a distorted trapping potential for their particles, with the latter estimating a force sensitivity of 3 × 10 −7 N Hz −1/2 .…”

Section: Detection Of Surface Forcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optomechanics with levitated particles

et al. 2020

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Optomechanics is concerned with the use of light to control mechanical objects. As a field, it has been hugely successful in the production of precise and novel sensors, the development of low-dissipation nanomechanical devices, and the manipulation of quantum signals. Micro-and nano-particles levitated in optical fields act as nanoscale oscillators, making them excellent lowdissipation optomechanical objects, with minimal thermal contact to the environment when operating in vacuum. Levitated optomechanics is seen as the most promising route for studying high-mass quantum physics, with the promise of creating macroscopically separated superposition states at masses of 10 6 amu and above. Optical feedback, both using active monitoring or the passive interaction with an optical cavity, can be used to cool the centre-of-mass of levitated nanoparticles well below 1 mK, paving the way to operation in the quantum regime. In addition, trapped mesoscopic particles are the paradigmatic system for studying nanoscale stochastic processes, and have already demonstrated their utility in state-of-the-art force sensing. * Electronic address: james.millen@kcl.ac.uk arXiv:1907.08198v1 [physics.optics] 18 Jul 2019It is a pleasant coincidence, that whilst writing this review the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 was jointly awarded to the American scientist Arthur Ashkin, for his development of optical tweezers. By focusing a beam of light, small objects can be manipulated through radiation pressure and/or gradient forces. This technology is now available offthe-shelf due to its applicability in the bio-and medical-sciences, where it has found utility in studying cells and other microscopic entities.The pleasant coincidences continue, when one notes that the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Weiss, Thorne and Barish for their work on the LIGO gravitational wave detector. This amazingly precise experiment is, ultimately, an optomechanical device, where the position of a mechanical oscillator is monitored via its coupling to an optical cavity. The field of optomechanics is in the ascendency [1], showing great promise in the development of quantum technologies and force sensing. These applications are somewhat limited by unavoidable energy dissipation and thermal loading at the nanoscale [2], which despite impressive progress in soft-clamping technology [3] means that these technologies will likely always operate in cryogenic environments.Enter the work of Ashkin: he showed that dielectric particles could be levitated and cooled under vacuum conditions in 1977 [4]. By levitating particles at low pressures, they naturally decouple from the thermal environment, and since the mechanical mode is the centre-of-mass motion of a particle, energy dissipation via strain vanishes. The field of levitated optomechanics really took off in 2010, when three independent proposals illustrated that levitated nanoparticles could be coupled to optical cavities [5][6][7]. This promises cooling to the quantum regime, and state engineering once you are t...

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“…This is typically done by measuring the resonant response to a perturbation on its motion [33][34][35] . Levitated systems have also been used to study interactions with nearby dielectric surfaces 36,37 , and proposals have been devised to measure short range interactions like the Casimir effect 38 In this letter we experimentally demonstrate Fano antiresonance in levitated optomechanics. The characteristic Fano anti-resonance is induced with a static Coulomb interaction by charging a stainless steel needle close to a charged nanoparticle in a gradient force optical trap.…”

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confidence: 92%

Static force characterization with Fano anti-resonance in levitated optomechanics

Timberlake

Toroš

Hempston

et al. 2019

Applied Physics Letters

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We demonstrate a classical analogy to the Fano anti-resonance in levitated optomechanics by applying a DC electric field. Specifically, we experimentally tune the Fano parameter by applying a DC voltage from 0 kV to 10 kV on a nearby charged needle tip. We find consistent results across negative and positive needle voltages, with the Fano line-shape feature able to exist at both higher and lower frequencies than the fundamental oscillator frequency. We can use the Fano parameter to characterize our system to be sensitive to static interactions which are ever-present. Currently, we can distinguish a static Coulomb force of 2.7 ± 0.5 × 10 −15 N with the Fano parameter, which is measured with one second of integration time. Furthermore, we are able to extract the charge to mass ratio of the trapped nanoparticle.

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Direct measurement of the electrostatic image force of a levitated charged nanoparticle close to a surface

Cited by 38 publications

References 34 publications

Acceleration sensing with magnetically levitated oscillators above a superconductor

Acceleration sensing with magnetically levitated oscillators above a superconductor

Optomechanics with levitated particles

Static force characterization with Fano anti-resonance in levitated optomechanics

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