Near-field GHz rotation and sensing with an optically levitated nanodumbbell

Abstract

A levitated non-spherical nanoparticle in a vacuum is ideal for studying quantum rotations and is an extremely sensitive torque and force detector. It has been proposed to probe fundamental particle-surface interactions such as the Casimir torque and the rotational quantum vacuum friction, which require it to be driven to rotate near a surface at sub-micrometer separations. Here, we optically levitate a silica nanodumbbell in a vacuum at about 430 nm away from a sapphire surface and drive it to rotate at GHz frequencies. The relative linear speed between the tip of the nanodumbbell and the surface reaches 1.4 km/s at a sub-micrometer separation. The rotating nanodumbbell near the surface demonstrates a torque sensitivity of $(5.0\pm 1.1)\times 10^{-26}{\mathrm{NmHz}}^{-1/2}$ at room temperature. Moreover, we levitate a nanodumbbell near a gold nanograting and use it to probe the near-field intensity distribution beyond the optical diffraction limit. Our numerical simulation shows it is promising to detect the Casimir torque between a nanodumbbell and a nanograting.

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• Entropy dynamics for a harmonic propeller-shaped planar molecular quantum Brownian rotator
• Probing rotational decoherence with a trapped-ion planar rotor
• Roto-translational optomechanics
• Purcell-enhanced optical refrigeration
• Current-induced near-field radiative energy, linear-momentum, and angular-momentum transfer