Spatio-Orientational Decoherence of Nanoparticles

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-spherical nanoparticles' combined rotational and translational quantum states are decohered by environmental interactions, using a quantum master equation approach to evaluate localization rates and angular momentum diffusion.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum master equation framework that accounts for orientation-dependent scattering, providing new insights into decoherence mechanisms for anisotropic nanoparticles.

Findings

Localization rates depend on anisotropic scattering potentials.

Pure angular momentum diffusion emerges from weak anisotropy interactions.

The model applies to both gas collisions and photon scattering scenarios.

Abstract

Motivated by trapping and cooling experiments with non-spherical nanoparticles, we discuss how their combined rotational and translational quantum state is affected by the interaction with a gaseous environment. Based on the quantum master equation in terms of orientation-dependent scattering amplitudes, we evaluate the localization rate for gas collisions off an anisotropic van der Waals-type potential and for photon scattering off an anisotropic dielectric. We also show how pure angular momentum diffusion arises from these open quantum dynamics in the limit of weak anisotropies.