Transfer of a levitating nanoparticle between optical tweezers

TL;DR

This paper presents a reliable method for transferring levitating silica nanoparticles between optical tweezers in vacuum, enabling improved cavity optomechanics experiments and potential quantum sensing applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel setup with fiber-mounted optical traps allowing particle transfer without contaminating the cavity environment, enhancing experimental reproducibility.

Findings

Successful transfer of nanoparticles between optical tweezers

Prevents contamination of cavity mirrors during loading

Facilitates systematic quantum and sensing studies

Abstract

We demonstrate and characterize the transfer of a levitating silica nanosphere between two optical tweezers, at low pressure. Both optical traps are mounted on the heads of optical fibers and placed on translation stages in vacuum chambers. Our setup allows to physically separate the particle loading environment from the experimental chamber, where the second tweezer can position the particle inside a high Finesse optical cavity. The separation prevents from spoiling the cavity mirrors and the chamber cleanliness during the particle loading phase. Our system provides a very reliable and simply reproducible protocol for preparing cavity optomechanics experiments with levitating nanoparticles, opening the way to systematic studies of quantum phenomena and easing the realization of sensing devices.