Sensing Short-Range Forces with a Nanosphere Matter-Wave Interferometer

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel matter wave interferometry method using dielectric nanospheres for sensing short-range forces with high sensitivity, surpassing current limits for deviations from Newtonian gravity at micrometer scales.

Contribution

It introduces a nanosphere-based matter wave interferometer that enables near-surface force measurements with enhanced sensitivity compared to atom interferometers.

Findings

Achieves acceleration sensitivity of 10^{-8} m/s^2.

Potential to improve Yukawa force detection sensitivity by a factor of 10^4.

Demonstrates feasibility of ground-state cooling and free-fall interferometry with nanospheres.

Abstract

We describe a method for sensing short range forces using matter wave interference in dielectric nanospheres. When compared with atom interferometers, the larger mass of the nanosphere results in reduced wave packet expansion, enabling investigations of forces nearer to surfaces in a free-fall interferometer. By laser cooling a nanosphere to the ground state of an optical potential and releasing it by turning off the optical trap, acceleration sensing at the $10^{-8}$m/s$^2$ level is possible. The approach can yield improved sensitivity to Yukawa-type deviations from Newtonian gravity at the $5$ $\mu$m length scale by a factor of $10^4$ over current limits.