Levitated Optomechanics with Meta-Atoms

Sergei Lepeshov, Nadine Meyer, Patrick Maurer, Oriol Romero-Isart, and Romain Quidant
Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 233601 – Published 8 June 2023
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Abstract

We propose to introduce additional control in levitated optomechanics by trapping a meta-atom, i.e., a subwavelength and high-permittivity dielectric particle supporting Mie resonances. In particular, we theoretically demonstrate that optical levitation and center-of-mass ground-state cooling of silicon nanoparticles in vacuum is not only experimentally feasible but it offers enhanced performance over widely used silica particles in terms of trap frequency, trap depth, and optomechanical coupling rates. Moreover, we show that, by adjusting the detuning of the trapping laser with respect to the particle’s resonance, the sign of the polarizability becomes negative, enabling levitation in the minimum of laser intensity, e.g., at the nodes of a standing wave. The latter opens the door to trapping nanoparticles in the optical near-field combining red and blue-detuned frequencies, in analogy to two-level atoms, which is of interest for generating strong coupling to photonic nanostructures and short-distance force sensing.

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  • Received 30 November 2022
  • Accepted 10 May 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.233601

© 2023 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalQuantum Information, Science & Technology

Authors & Affiliations

Sergei Lepeshov1, Nadine Meyer2,3, Patrick Maurer4,5, Oriol Romero-Isart4,5,*, and Romain Quidant2,3,†

  • 1School of Physics and Engineering, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • 2Nanophotonic Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 3Quantum Center, ETH Zurich, 8083 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 4Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
  • 5Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

  • *Corresponding author. Oriol.Romero-Isart@uibk.ac.at
  • Corresponding author. rquidant@ethz.ch

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Issue

Vol. 130, Iss. 23 — 9 June 2023

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