Coherent oscillations of an optically levitated birefringent microsphere in vacuum

Yoshihiko Arita; Stephen Simpson; Pavel Zemánek; Kishan Dholakia

doi:10.1117/12.2570854

22 August 2020 Coherent oscillations of an optically levitated birefringent microsphere in vacuum

Yoshihiko Arita, Stephen Simpson, Pavel Zemánek, Kishan Dholakia

Proceedings Volume 11463, Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XVII; 114631W (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2570854
Event: SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, 2020, Online Only

Abstract

When particles are held in optical tweezers, we assume that they are in thermal equilibrium. Here we show that this condition only holds for high symmetry cases, e.g. perfectly isotropic particles in unaberrated, linearly polarized Gaussian traps. We show both experimentally and theoretically that when a birefringent microsphere is held in a linearly polarised Gaussian optical trap in vacuum, spontaneous oscillations emerge that grow rapidly in amplitude and become increasingly coherent as the air pressure is reduced. Furthermore, when parametrically driven, these self-sustained oscillators exhibit an ultrahigh quality factor exceeding 200 million, which can be highly sensitive to external perturbations.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Yoshihiko Arita, Stephen Simpson, Pavel Zemánek, and Kishan Dholakia "Coherent oscillations of an optically levitated birefringent microsphere in vacuum", Proc. SPIE 11463, Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XVII, 114631W (22 August 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2570854

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