Tuesday, September 15, 1:00, TA-53, Building 1 Room A234

Optomechanics with levitated nanodiamonds

Free-space optical levitation of massive objects marries the physics and 

experimental techniques from the mature field of optical tweezers, with 

the relatively new and expanding field of optomechanics. In this talk I 

describe the design, construction, and characterization of an apparatus 

which can optically levitate and manipulate dielectric nanoparticles in 

a vacuum environment. Optomechanical cooling is induced by parametric 

feedback, and cooling performance is directly compared to a similar, 

previously reported system. I discuss our efforts to the develop a 

versatile spin-optomechanics platform based on optically levitated 

nanodiamonds. We use the apparatus to conduct preliminary experiments 

with nanodiamonds containing either individual, or ensembles of 

optically addressable spins in the form of nitrogen-vacancy defect 

centers. We observe fluorescence from the defects in nanodiamonds 

levitated at atmospheric pressure and in low vacuum. In vacuum, we 

demonstrate the ability to optomechanically modulate the fluorescence 

rates, and resonantly drive spin transitions. This proof-of-principle 

work suggests levitated nanodiamonds to be suitable platforms for future 

spin-optomechanical work.