Stefan Kuhn1, Peter Asenbaum1, Ugur Sezer1, Alon Kosloff2, Michele Sclafani1, Georg Wachter3, Michael Trupke3, Benjamin A. Stickler4, Stefan Nimmrichter4, Klaus Hornberger4, Ori Cheshnovsky2, Fernando Patolsky2, Markus Arndt1
1University of Vienna, AT,
2Tel-Aviv University, IL,
3Vienna University of Technology, AT
4University of Duisburg-Essen, DE
Cavity cooling of dielectric nanoparticles: Towards matter-wave experiments
Resonant laser cooling techniques have given a boost to the field of atomic physics throughout the last 30 years. Complex molecules and nanoparticles, however, cannot yet be controlled by these methods due to their complex internal level structure and the lack of addressable cyclic transitions. In reply to this need, cavity cooling has been proposed more than 15 years ago [1,2] and was recently realised experimentally with nanoparticles [3,4,5].
We will discuss our experimental results on transverse cavity cooling of free silicon nanoparticles in high vacuum [4]. In a next step we will aim at controlling even smaller particles inside silicon micro-cavity chips with the ultimate goal to facilitate matter wave interferometry experiments in a mass range of 106 – 107 amu [6]. Furthermore we will present first experimental studies on cavity-assisted detection and manipulation of the rotational motion of tailored silicon nanorods in high vacuum [7]. By monitoring the scattered light while the rods transit through the cavity field, we can track their dynamics in real time and observe optical forces and torques. These results will be beneficial for improving current cooling schemes and they represent a first step towards the realisation of rotational cooling.
References:
[1] P. Horak et al. PRL 79 (1997)
[2] V. Vuletic & S. Chu PRL 84 (2000)
[3] N. Kiesel et al. PNAS 110 (2013)
[4] P. Asenbaum et al. Nat. Commun. 4 (2013)
[5] J. Millen et al. PRL 114 (2015)
[6] M. Arndt & K. Hornberger Nat. Phys. 10(4) (2014)
[7] S. Kuhn et al. Nano Lett. 15(8) (2015)
