Descripción del proyecto
Nuevos avances en optomecánica cuántica
Las industrias modernas y los sectores científicos amplían de forma continua los límites de la tecnología con el objetivo de obtener sistemas cada vez más pequeños y avanzados. Con este objetivo en mente, la investigación en optomecánica cuántica y el desarrollo de los osciladores micro- y nanomecánicos de alta eficiencia han adquirido una inmensa importancia. El equipo del proyecto QnanoMECA, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, pretende sacar partido de un avance reciente que permite hacer levitar nanobjetos en el vacío. Este método permite abordar las limitaciones actuales del campo de la optomecánica. Aprovechando estos avances, el proyecto aspira a conseguir un enfriamiento práctico del estado fundamental a temperatura ambiente, lo que supondría un hito importante en este campo. El objetivo principal pasa por impulsar el campo de la optomecánica, fomentar nuevos avances dentro de este ámbito y facilitar otros descubrimientos más exhaustivos.
Objetivo
Micro- and nano-mechanical oscillators with high quality (Q)-factors have gained much interest for their capability to sense very small forces. Recently, this interest has exponentially grown owing to their potential to push the current limits of experimental quantum physics and contribute to our further understanding of quantum effects with large objects. Despite recent advances in the design and fabrication of mechanical resonators, their Q-factor has so far been limited by coupling to the environment through physical contact to a support. This limitation is foreseen to become a bottleneck in the field which might hinder reaching the performances required for some of the envisioned applications. A very attractive alternative to conventional mechanical resonators is based on optically levitated nano-objects in vacuum. In particular, a nanoparticle trapped in the focus of a laser beam in vacuum is mechanically disconnected from its environment and hence does not suffer from clamping losses. First experiments on this configuration have confirmed the unique capability of this approach and demonstrated the largest mechanical Q-factor ever observed at room temperature. The QnanoMECA project aims at capitalizing on the unique capability of optically levitating nanoparticles to advance the field of optomechanics well beyond the current state-of-the-art. The project is first aimed at bringing us closer to ground-state cooling at room temperature. We will also explore new paradigms of optomechanics based on the latest advances of nano-optics. The unique optomechanical properties of the developed systems based on levitated nanoparticles will be used to explore new physical regimes whose experimental observation has been so far hindered by current experimental limitations.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
8092 Zuerich
Suiza