Events

Seminar of Physics of Wrocław University of Technology

Optical levitation and cooling of nanoparticles

Prof. Pavel Zemánek

Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Scientific Instruments, Brno

The seminar will focus on the force interaction between light and nanoparticles in vacuum. Though such optical forces are tiny, they can levitate a nanoparticle in the light. Such optical levitation in vacuum isolates the nanoparticle from the noisy environment around and the nanoparticle behaves as a weakly damped tiny oscillator. Using various optomechanical interactions, the amplitude of nanoparticle oscillations can be decreased, and even the lowest energy levels allowed by quantum mechanics can be reached. Recent experiments have already succeeded in revealing such a „macroscopic quantum oscillator“ and have opened the experimental doors to the unexplored boundary between quantum and classical worlds.