Abstract
In just 20 years of history, the field of optomechanics has achieved impressive progress, stepping into the quantum regime just 5 years ago. Such remarkable advance relies on the technological revolution of nano-optomechanical systems, whose sensitivity towards thermal decoherence is strongly limited due to their ultra-low mass. Here we report a hybrid approach pushing nano-optomechanics to even lower scales. The concept relies on synthesising an efficient optical scatterer at the tip of singly clamped carbon nanotube resonators. We demonstrate high signal-to-noise motion readout and record force sensitivity, two orders of magnitude below the state of the art. Our work opens the perspective to extend quantum experiments and applications at room temperature.
Highlights
In just 20 years of history, the field of optomechanics has achieved impressive progress, stepping into the quantum regime just 5 years ago
The ability to detect our hybrid carbon nanotube resonator close to the Heisenberg limit is an important step towards quantum optomechanical operation at room temperature, including quantum non-demolition measurements[42] and optomechanical squeezing of coherent light fields[43]
It represents an indispensable prerequisite for coherent optomechanical preparation and manipulation of quantum nanomechanical states[7,8]: As already mentioned, operating above the Heisenberg limit results in added classical noise within the optomechanical measurement process, which notably yields to a minimal phonon occupation proportional to that noise[44]
Summary
In just 20 years of history, the field of optomechanics has achieved impressive progress, stepping into the quantum regime just 5 years ago Such remarkable advance relies on the technological revolution of nano-optomechanical systems, whose sensitivity towards thermal decoherence is strongly limited due to their ultra-low mass. The concept is to selectively grow an efficient optical scatterer at the tip of singly clamped, micrometrelong carbon nanotube (CNT) resonators Because of their ultralow mass, we show that our devices are 200 times less sensitive to thermal noise than the recently reported state of the art[10,11,14], reaching levels that were previously confined to cryogenic environments[15,16]. Our work appears as an excellent way to use nanoparticles as scanning sensors, opening the perspective of enhanced performances in various fields such as surface imaging[17,18], magnetic[19,20] and force[21,22] microscopy as well as for unprecedentedly sensitive cavity optomechanical studies[23]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
