Sensing short range forces with a nanosphere matter-wave interferometer

Abstract

We describe a method for sensing short range forces using matter wave interference in dielectric nanospheres. When compared with atom interferometers, the larger mass of the nanosphere results in reduced wave packet expansion, enabling investigations of forces nearer to surfaces in a freefall interferometer. By laser cooling a nanosphere to the ground state of an optical potential and releasing it by turning off the optical trap, acceleration sensing at the 10 −8 m/s 2 level is possible. The approach can yield improved sensitivity to Yukawa-type deviations from Newtonian gravity at the 5 µm length scale by a factor of 10 4 over current limits.

Fifteen years of cold matter on the atom chip: promise, realizations, and prospects

“…An alternative orientation of an atom chip has been proposed for measuring short-range interactions with a nanosphere [ 301 ]. Orienting the atom chip vertically, the optical lattice may be created by a retro-reflecting laser aimed horizontally.…”

Search for deviations from the inverse square law of gravity at nm range using a pulsed neutron beam

“…Data used to measure Casimir interactions have been first reanalyzed and later the relevant apparatus modified specifically to search for ISL deviations on micron scales [10][11][12][13]. Experiments using laser-levitated microspheres to search in this distance regime have been proposed or are in progress [14,15]. At these distance scales interatomic forces generated by the electric polarizability of atoms contribute a serious experimental background.…”

Decoherence as a way to measure extremely soft collisions with dark matter

“…For large enough V 0 , the potential becomes completely reflective, and the scattering is isotropic. 34 When V 0 < 0, we have tanh R √ 2mV 0 /(R √ 2mV 0 ) = tan(R 2m|V 0 |)/(R 2m|V 0 |), which exhibits resonant behavior. which saturates at 4πR 2 = 4σ geo .…”

“…Matter interferometers may also use unitary (non-decoherent) dynamics to strengthen constraints on new Yukawa forces with ranges over a micron[34] 6. For instance, the gold nanospheres superposed by the OTIMA experiment will be roughly 10 nm in diameter but will be superposed over distances exceeding 70 nm[30].…”