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Optical trapping and cooling at telecom wavelengths
The goal of this master project is to set up an optical trap for a dielectric nanoparticle at telecom wavelengths and evaluate its performance for feedback cooling in comparison to existing experiments at 1064 nm.
Electromagnetic radiation generates forces when interacting with matter. Despite the fact that these forces are minute by human standards, the radiation pressure force has been known for hundreds of years, since it bends the tails of comets away from the sun. Besides the radiation pressure force associated with the photon momentum, there is the optical gradient force, which is much less intuitive to understand. This conservative force pulls a dielectric object to the region of highest field intensity, such that a focused light field represents an optical trapping potential for a
dielectric scatterer [1, 2].
During recent years, the Photonics Laboratory has demonstrated optical trapping of dielectric
nanoparticles and feedback cooling of their center-of-mass motion to a regime well below 100 quanta [3, 4]. The ultimate goal is to bring such a levitated particle into a non-classical quantum mechanical state. Thus far, our work relies on trapping beams with a wavelength of 1064 nm. For technical reasons, it is promising to move to the telecom wavelength range around 1550 nm, where devices such as modulators, filters, and isolators are available with outstanding performance at an attractive cost.
The goal of this master project is to set up an optical trap for a dielectric nanoparticle at
telecom wavelengths and evaluate its performance for feedback cooling in comparison to existing
experiments at 1064 nm. A strong focus will lie on exploiting the maturity of optical technology in the telecom band to outperform the currently achieved feedback-cooling performance.
[1] A. Ashkin, Optical Trapping and Manipulation of Neutral Particles Using Lasers, World Scientific Publishing
[2] L. Novotny and B. Hecht, Principles of Nano Optics, Cambridge University Press
[3] J. Gieseler et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 103603 (2012)
[4] V. Jain et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 243601 (2016)
Electromagnetic radiation generates forces when interacting with matter. Despite the fact that these forces are minute by human standards, the radiation pressure force has been known for hundreds of years, since it bends the tails of comets away from the sun. Besides the radiation pressure force associated with the photon momentum, there is the optical gradient force, which is much less intuitive to understand. This conservative force pulls a dielectric object to the region of highest field intensity, such that a focused light field represents an optical trapping potential for a dielectric scatterer [1, 2]. During recent years, the Photonics Laboratory has demonstrated optical trapping of dielectric nanoparticles and feedback cooling of their center-of-mass motion to a regime well below 100 quanta [3, 4]. The ultimate goal is to bring such a levitated particle into a non-classical quantum mechanical state. Thus far, our work relies on trapping beams with a wavelength of 1064 nm. For technical reasons, it is promising to move to the telecom wavelength range around 1550 nm, where devices such as modulators, filters, and isolators are available with outstanding performance at an attractive cost. The goal of this master project is to set up an optical trap for a dielectric nanoparticle at telecom wavelengths and evaluate its performance for feedback cooling in comparison to existing experiments at 1064 nm. A strong focus will lie on exploiting the maturity of optical technology in the telecom band to outperform the currently achieved feedback-cooling performance.
[1] A. Ashkin, Optical Trapping and Manipulation of Neutral Particles Using Lasers, World Scientific Publishing [2] L. Novotny and B. Hecht, Principles of Nano Optics, Cambridge University Press [3] J. Gieseler et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 103603 (2012) [4] V. Jain et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 243601 (2016)
The goal of this master project is to set up an optical trap for a dielectric nanoparticle at
telecom wavelengths and evaluate its performance for feedback cooling in comparison to existing
experiments at 1064 nm. A strong focus will lie on exploiting the maturity of optical technology in
the telecom band to outperform the currently achieved feedback-cooling performance.
The goal of this master project is to set up an optical trap for a dielectric nanoparticle at telecom wavelengths and evaluate its performance for feedback cooling in comparison to existing experiments at 1064 nm. A strong focus will lie on exploiting the maturity of optical technology in the telecom band to outperform the currently achieved feedback-cooling performance.