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Thermal nonlinearities in a nanomechanical oscillator

Nature Physics volume 9, pages 806–810 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nano- and micromechanical oscillators with high quality (Q)-factors have gained much attention for their potential application as ultrasensitive detectors. In contrast to micro-fabricated devices, optically trapped nanoparticles in vacuum do not suffer from clamping losses, hence leading to much larger Q-factors. We find that for a levitated nanoparticle the thermal energy suffices to drive the motion of the nanoparticle into the nonlinear regime. First, we experimentally measure and fully characterize the frequency fluctuations originating from thermal motion and nonlinearities. Second, we demonstrate that feedback cooling can be used to mitigate these fluctuations. The high level of control allows us to fully exploit the force-sensing capabilities of the nanoresonator. Our approach offers a force sensitivity of 20 zN Hz−1/2, which is the highest value reported so far at room temperature, sufficient to sense ultraweak interactions, such as non-Newtonian gravity-like forces.

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Figure 1: Experimental configuration.
Figure 2: Nonlinearity-induced frequency fluctuations.
Figure 3: Frequency and energy correlation.
Figure 4: Pressure dependence of frequency fluctuations.
Figure 5: Detection of a periodic force gradient using feedback cooling.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by ETH Zurich, Fundació Privada CELLEX, ERC-QMES (No. 338763) and ERC-Plasmolight (No. 259196). We thank A. Bachtold and M. Spasenović for valuable input and help and Iñaki Gonzalez for his assistance in preparing Fig. 1.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Mediterranean Technology Park, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain

    Jan Gieseler & Romain Quidant

  2. Photonics Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

    Lukas Novotny

  3. ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, 08010 Barcelona, Spain

    Romain Quidant

Authors
  1. Jan Gieseler
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  2. Lukas Novotny
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  3. Romain Quidant
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Contributions

J.G. and L.N. developed the set-up. J.G. performed the experiments and analysed the data. L.N. and R.Q. supervised the work. All authors contributed to discussing the results and writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lukas Novotny or Romain Quidant.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Gieseler, J., Novotny, L. & Quidant, R. Thermal nonlinearities in a nanomechanical oscillator. Nature Phys 9, 806–810 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2798

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