Towards sympathetic cooling of large molecules: Cold collisions between benzene and rare gas atoms

This paper reports on calculations of collisional cross sections for the complexes Z-CDH6 (X = 3He, 4He, Ne) at temperatures in the range 1)μK - 10K and shows that relatively large cross sections in the 103-105Å2 range are available for collisional cooling. Both elastic and inelastic processes are considered in this temperature range. The calculations suggest that sympathetically cooling benzene to microkelvin temperatures is feasible using these co-trapped rare gas atoms in an optical trap. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschan

Doppler Cooling a Microsphere

Doppler cooling the center-of-mass motion of an optically levitated microsphere via the velocity-dependent scattering force from narrow whispering gallery mode resonances is described. Light that is red detuned from the whispering gallery mode resonance can be used to damp the center-of-mass motion in a process analogous to the Doppler cooling of atoms. The scattering force is not limited by saturation but can be controlled by the incident power. Cooling times on the order of seconds are calculated for a 20 mu m diameter silica microsphere trapped within optical tweezers

Realizing Einstein’s Mirror: Optomechanical Damping with a Thermal Photon Gas

Einstein described the damping and thermalization of the center-of-mass motion of a mirror placed inside a blackbody cavity by collisions with thermal photons. While the time for damping even a microscale or nanoscale object is so long that it is not experimentally viable, we show that this damping is feasible using the high-intensity light from an amplified thermal light source with a well-defined chemical potential. We predict this damping of the center-of-mass motion will occur on timescales of tens of seconds for small optomechanical systems

Measurement of the motional heating of a levitated nanoparticle by thermal light

We report on measurements of the photon-induced heating of silica nanospheres levitated in a vacuum by a thermal light source formed by a superluminescent diode. Heating of the nanospheres motion along the three trap axes was measured as a function of gas pressure for two particle sizes and recoil heating was shown to dominate other heating mechanisms due to relative intensity noise and beam pointing fluctuations. Heating rates were also compared with the much lower reheating of the same sphere when levitated by a laser

Creating atom-nanoparticle quantum superpositions

A nanoscale object evidenced in a nonclassical state of its center of mass will hugely extend the boundaries of quantum mechanics. To obtain a practical scheme for the same, we exploit a hitherto unexplored coupled system: an atom and a nanoparticle coupled by an optical field. We show how to control the center of mass of a large ∼500-nm nanoparticle using the internal state of the atom so as to create, as well as detect, nonclassical motional states of the nanoparticle. Specifically, we consider a setup based on a silica nanoparticle coupled to a cesium atom and discuss a protocol for preparing and verifying a Schrödinger-cat state of the nanoparticle that does not require cooling to the motional ground state. We show that the existence of the superposition can be revealed using the Earth's gravitational field using a method that is insensitive to the most common sources of decoherence and works for any initial state of the nanoparticle

Quadratic optomechanical cooling of a cavity-levitated nanosphere

We report on cooling the center-of-mass motion of a nanoparticle due to a purely quadratic coupling between its motion and the optical field of a high finesse cavity. The resulting interaction gives rise to a Van der Pol nonlinear damping, which is analogous to conventional parametric feedback where the cavity provides passive feedback without measurement. We show experimentally that like feedback cooling the resulting energy distribution is strongly nonthermal and can be controlled by the nonlinear damping of the cavity. As quadratic coupling has a prominent role in proposed protocols to generate deeply nonclassical states, our work represents a first step for producing such states in a levitated system

Sympathetic cooling and squeezing of two colevitated nanoparticles

Levitated particles are an ideal tool for measuring weak forces and investigating quantum mechanics in macroscopic objects. Arrays of two or more of these particles have been suggested for improving force sensitivity and entangling macroscopic objects. In this article, two charged, silica nanoparticles, that are coupled through their mutual Coulomb repulsion, are trapped in a Paul trap, and the individual masses and charges of both particles are characterized. We demonstrate sympathetic cooling of one nanoparticle coupled via the Coulomb interaction to the second nanoparticle to which feedback cooling is directly applied. We also implement sympathetic squeezing through a similar process showing nonthermal motional states can be transferred by the Coulomb interaction. This work establishes protocols to cool and manipulate arrays of nanoparticles for sensing and minimizing the effect of optical heating in future experiments

Characterisation of a charged particle levitated nano-oscillator

We describe the construction and characterisation of a nano-oscillator formed by a Paul trap. The frequency and temperature stability of the nano-oscillator was measured over several days allowing us to identify the major sources of trap and environmental fluctuations. We measure an overall frequency stability of 2 ppm/hr and a temperature stability of more than 5 hours via the Allan deviation. Importantly, we find that the charge on the nanoscillator is stable over a timescale of at least two weeks and that the mass of the oscillator, can be measured with a 3 % uncertainty. This allows us to distinguish between the trapping of a single nanosphere and a nano-dumbbell formed by a cluster of two nanospheres

Split-sideband spectroscopy in slowly modulated optomechanics

Optomechanical coupling between the motion of a mechanical oscillator and a cavity represents a new arena for experimental investigation of quantum effects on the mesoscopic and macroscopic scale. The motional sidebands of the output of a cavity offer ultra-sensitive probes of the dynamics. We introduce a scheme whereby these sidebands split asymmetrically and show how they may be used as experimental diagnostics and signatures of quantum noise limited dynamics. We show split-sidebands with controllable asymmetry occur by simultaneously modulating the light-mechanical coupling g and the mechanical frequency, ${\omega }_{{\rm{M}}}$—slowly and out-of-phase. Such modulations are generic but already occur in optically trapped set-ups where the equilibrium point of the oscillator is varied cyclically. We analyse recently observed, but overlooked, experimental split-sideband asymmetries; although not yet in the quantum regime, the data suggests that split sideband structures are easily accessible to future experiments

Characterising a tunable, pulsed atomic beam using matter-wave interferometry

We describe the creation and characterisation of a velocity tunable, spin-polarized beam of slow metastable argon atoms. We show that the beam velocity can be determined with a precision below 1% using matter-wave interferometry. The profile of the interference pattern was also used to determine the velocity spread of the beam, as well as the Van der Waals (VdW) co-efficient for the interaction between the metastable atoms and the multi-slit silicon nitride grating. The VdW co-efficient was determined to be C_{3} = 1.84 ± 0.17 a.u., in good agreement with values derived from spectroscopic data. Finally, the spin polarization of the beam produced during acceleration of the beam was also measured, demonstrating a spatially uniform spin polarization of 96% in the m = +2 state