Abstract
In contrast to current efforts to quantify the radiation pressure of light using nano-micromechanical resonators in cryogenic conditions, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated the radiation pressure measurement in ambient conditions by utilizing a macroscopic mechanical longitudinal oscillator with an effective mass of the order of 20 g. The light pressure on a mirror attached to the oscillator was recorded in a Michelson interferometer and results showed, within the experimental accuracy of 3.9%, a good agreement with the harmonic oscillator model without free parameters.
Highlights
Where P is the optical power and c is the speed of light
Optical forces in those nanomicromechanical systems have been directly accompanied by photothermal effects due to short thermal time constants of the miniaturized resonators[6,7,26,27,28,29], which has required further sophisticated techniques to discern them from the radiation pressure effects
Various optical, mechanical, and thermal techniques have been developed to overcome the trade-off between the radiation pressure and the photothermal effects, such as complex resonator designs consisting of highly reflective multilayer coatings deposited on the cantilever to further increase the r eflectivity[7,12], attachment of an additional mass to increase the thermal time constant of the cantilever[13], or other ways to separate the optical force from the photothermal e ffects[30,31]
Summary
Where P is the optical power and c is the speed of light. If light is irradiated on a non-planar or partly absorbing object, the value of the radiation pressure is always smaller than its maximum value given in Eq (1). The measurement of the maximum value of the optical force-power ratio, F/P = 2/c , which has a universal value given in terms of the speed of light, provides a good test for the accuracy of the radiation pressure measurements. Despite being a century-old discovery, the radiation pressure continues to be one of the key research interests in current optomechanics, such as in cooling of mechanical resonators[4,5,6,7,8], solar sail development[9], ultra-high laser power measurements[10,11], and nano-scale cantilevers’ spring constant calibration[12,13], to name a few. The main trend in light pressure studies in recent years has been to miniaturize a mechanical oscillator to the nano-micro scale for a higher sensitivity to the radiation pressure[4,6,7,25]. As the only additional measurement of the oscillator parameters is the direct determination of the oscillator masses using a digital scale
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
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 call
