OPTRACOOL: Optical Trapping and Cooling of a single nanosphere and its motional control by electric fields
Research project selected under the 2015 call for proposals
Principal Investigator :
Matthias Büchner ()
LCAR (Opération de Recherche : Nanopince)
Type of project : Disruptive Project
Date (start/end) : 2016 - 2018
Planned experimental set-up. A silica nanosphere is trapped with an optical tweezer and its centre of mass motion is cooled by optical forces
Abstract
The mass of a nanostructure, e.g. a silica nanosphere, is between 10 -21 –10 -24 kg, thus comparable to about ten of hemoglobin molecules or about 10 viruses. The study of such nanostructures is interesting as they form a bridge between the macroscopic and microscopic world: they are governed by quantum and classical mechanics. Such a trapped nanostructure can also be used to probe ultra-weak forces.
Our goal is to trap a silica nanosphere in an high vacuum environment and to cool its centre-of-mass motion. The main tasks are:
- Construct and characterize the optical system to trap a 150 nm diameter silica nanosphere.
Construct an optical system to detect the nanosphere motion and to realize a feedback in order to cool its centre-of-mass motion down to a few mKelvin.